Liverpool vs Manchester United: The Rivalry

What's the biggest rivalry in English football? Some fans will point to Manchester City vs United. Others will make the case for Arsenal vs Spurs. But if you want the one with the deepest roots, the one carrying history, culture, trophies, heartbreak and some of the most iconic matches ever played, it's Liverpool vs Manchester United. Two cities roughly 35 miles apart, and a rivalry that's stood for well over a century. 

Liverpool and Manchester United have won more trophies between them than any other club in English football, and between them they've dominated the domestic and European game for decades. So where did the rivalry start? What are the matches everyone still talks about? And where does it stand today? 

The Origins of the Derby 

Before a single ball was kicked between them, the rivalry between the two cities already existed, its roots stretching back to the industrial revolution. 

In the 1800s, Liverpool was England's dominant port city. Anything imported or exported in the north moved through Liverpool's docks. Manchester's merchants grew frustrated with the tolls they paid to move goods through the city, so they built their own canal. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894 and cut Liverpool out of a huge amount of that trade, letting Manchester deal directly with the world. Liverpool's business community and politicians fought it hard. The seed of the rivalry was planted before either football club had properly established itself. 

Three months after the canal opened, the two clubs met for the first time. Then known as Newton Heath, had finished bottom of the old First Division. Liverpool had swept to the Second Division title unbeaten. The two met in a promotion play-off, and Liverpool won 2-0, sending United down to the second tier. 

United won the 1907-08 league title while Liverpool sat mid-table. By the 1920s, United were relegated while Liverpool won two league championships. Between the 1920s and the resumption of football after the Second World War, neither club won a major trophy. 

The cities kept competing culturally too. Liverpool gave the world the Beatles in the 1960s. Manchester answered with the Hacienda and the Madchester scene, and later Oasis, in the late 1980s and 1990s. 

Since then, it's been near constant success for both clubs. Between them, Liverpool and Manchester United hold forty league titles, twenty-one FA Cups, sixteen League Cups, and nine European Cups. A further four UEFA Cups, one Cup Winners' Cup, three Intercontinental Cups or Club World Cups, and five UEFA Super Cups, these are England's biggest clubs going toe to toe to this day.

The Football Rivalry 

To understand how both clubs sustained such dominance, you need to understand the managers who built them. 

Matt Busby took over United after the war and rebuilt the club from almost nothing, backing youth and demanding attacking football. That produced the Busby Babes, back-to-back league champions, before the Munich air disaster of 1958 killed eight players and nearly claimed Busby's own life. He rebuilt again, and in 1968 United became the first English club to win the European Cup. 

At the same time, Bill Shankly walked into Liverpool in 1959 and found a Second Division club going nowhere. He tore the culture down and rebuilt it, creating the Boot Room and forging a deep bond with the fanbase. Bob Paisley took over when Shankly left and the machine never slowed, three European Cups and league titles year after year. For close to two decades, Liverpool were English football. 

United won the league in 1967 and then went 26 years without a title. That's where the rivalry turned bitter: Liverpool winning everything, United still the biggest name in the country, but with the trophies going the other way. 

Alex Ferguson arrived in 1986 with one job: knock Liverpool off their perch. He rebuilt the culture, brought through the Class of '92, and turned United back into a winning machine. By the time he retired in 2013, United had 20 league titles to Liverpool's 18, delivering on his promise. 

Since Ferguson left, the pendulum has swung back. Jürgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool and rebuilt the club in a way that felt familiar, reconnecting it with its own identity and building a team with a clear attacking style. A Champions League followed, then a long-awaited Premier League title in 2019-20, ending a 30-year domestic drought. Liverpool added a 20th league title under Arne Slot in 2024-25, matching United's own record and reclaiming the perch Ferguson had taken from them. 

The Iconic Moments of the North-West Derby 

A handful of matches define this fixture for supporters on both sides. 

1977 FA Cup Final. Liverpool had just won the league and were chasing a historic treble, with the European Cup final only four days away. United stood in their way at Wembley and won 2-1, courtesy of a deflected Jimmy Greenhoff goal. Liverpool's treble dream was gone, and United fans were delirious. 

1996 FA Cup Final. The two clubs met again in a final, with Eric Cantona scoring the winner in the 85th minute. The game is remembered as much for Liverpool's white "Spice Boys" suits as for the result. 

1999 FA Cup Fourth Round. United trailed 1-0 with the game slipping away, before Dwight Yorke equalised and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored a late winner. United went on to complete the treble that season. 

March 2009, Old Trafford. Ronaldo put United ahead from the penalty spot, but Liverpool hit back through Torres, a Gerrard penalty, Fábio Aurélio and Andrea Dossena for a stunning 4-1 win, United's worst home defeat in 17 years. 

October 2021, Old Trafford. Liverpool dismantled United 5-0, with Mohamed Salah becoming the first visiting player to score a Premier League hat-trick at Old Trafford. Ole Gunnar Solskjær was sacked shortly afterwards. 

March 2023, Anfield. Liverpool went one better, winning 7-0, United's heaviest ever defeat to their biggest rivals. 

2024 FA Cup Quarter-Final. A back-and-forth cup classic. Liverpool came from behind to lead 2-1 before a 97th-minute Antony equaliser, Harvey Elliott put Liverpool ahead again in extra time, but Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo turned it around for a 4-3 United win, who went on to lift the trophy against Manchester City in the final. 

Head-to-Head: Who Comes Out on Top? 

The clubs have met 217 times since that first fateful encounter in 1894. 

• Manchester United have the most wins, 84, to Liverpool's 72
• Liverpool's biggest win came in 2023, a 7-0 margin at Anfield
• Liverpool's longest winning run is five matches in a row, between 2000 and 2002
• Mohamed Salah is the top scorer in derby history, with 16 goals
• Ryan Giggs holds the all-time appearance record, with 48 games played
• On total trophies, Liverpool edge it 69 to United's 68, one trophy separating English football's two most successful clubs

Where the Rivalry Stands Today

The balance of power has swung firmly towards Liverpool in recent years. Under Klopp, Liverpool have rebuilt brilliantly, while United have cycled through managers trying to rediscover their identity. At the end of the 2025/26 season Slot and Liverpool parted ways, paving a way for the new head coach Andoni Iraola, whilst Manchester United appointed club-legend Michael Carrick following the un-improving results under former coach Ruben Amorim.

There's a pattern emerging through this all-time rivalry. Busby builds United followed by Shankly and Paisley's Liverpool. Ferguson rebuilds United. Klopp rebuilds Liverpool. We'll have to test this theory over the coming years.

Liverpool may have reclaimed the perch Ferguson famously took from them, but this fixture has shown time and again that nobody stays ahead for long. Two cities, over a century of history, and it's still going, match after match, season after season.

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