Are Manchester United becoming the new Liverpool?

The Barclays Premier League is entering the final ten games and there is all to play for to gain one of the illustrious UEFA Champions League places.

Manchester United currently sit in 4thplace, two points and one place ahead of Liverpool. These two clubs face each other at Anfield on Sunday 22nd March 2015, to fight for one of the four golden Champions League tickets.

This fixture is one of the biggest in World Football, pitting the two most decorated clubs of English Football together. This is not just about their local rivalry but also about the huge success they have at home and abroad, only one can be on top.

The disaster that was last season, which saw Manchester United end the campaign without European qualification for the first time since 1990, has been compounded this season with them going two seasons without winning a trophy in 24 years.

This sudden fall from grace of one of the top teams in the world is almost too similar to that of their biggest rivals back in the late Eighties.

Liverpool had dominated English and European football since the mid-sixties, whereas Manchester United have emulated this since the early nineties.

It is quite clear Liverpool’s, as well as English footballs, quick demise in this period was caused by the hooligan minority. The five year European ban given to English clubs from 1986, extended by a year for Liverpool, meant no European football for the first time in 20 years for the dominating Liverpool team of that era.

As well as the European ban, Liverpool had an aging team, add to this them been left in the wilderness of domestic football, it stopped them attracting the top names of the time, meaning the most decorated club of its time could not win the ultimate prize, the English Premier League, since Kenny Dalglish led the team to the First division title in 1990.

Whilst the club has shown promise over the years with some standout seasons including the outstanding 2001 treble, winning the League cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup and the unbelievable 2005 season winning their 5th Champions League title. These sporadic peaks in success have meant they have kept the hope that one day the holy grail of the English Premier League title is not too far away.

Manchester United are staring at the potential of a second season without European football. Having a team of stars who will no longer want to fight for the scraps of the FA and League Cups, but wanting to ply their skills in the millionaire’s playground of the Champions League. They will also find it extremely difficult to continue to attract the calibre of players that helped them succeed in the last 25 years.

Left in a domestic wilderness, could this be the start of the end for Manchester United?