Manchester united directors to take thier seat for sundays clash against liverpool

The Manchester United directors will take their seats for Sunday’s clash against Liverpool safe in the knowledge that the experience could not possibly be as uncomfortable as the last time their bitterest rivals came to Old Trafford.

That 3-0 defeat to Brendan Rodgers
’ side in March was the first nail in David Moyes’ coffin, the beginning of the end as the Old Trafford hierarchy squirmed in their seats before deciding that a new man would be in charge by the start of the next season.

A month earlier Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, had started discretely sounding out potential replacements - including Louis Van Gaal - but the humiliation of the defeat to Liverpool expedited the process.

Liverpool scored three - two penalties from Steven Gerrard and a Luis Suarez strike - but it could have been five or six. Gerrard missed a further penalty and the visitors created a number of chances against United’s ragged defence.

During internal discussions in the following days, United decided to explore their options, which also included Jurgen Klopp and Diego Simeone, with Moyes a dead man walking barely 10 months after his virtual coronation by Sir Alex Ferguson.

'If Woodward and the Glazer family needed any confirmation of just how far away United had drifted from the top teams," it came nine days later with another embarrassing 3-0 home defeat, this time to local rivals Manchester City.

“I got annoyed when we lost to Liverpool last year,” Ferguson told  Manchester United TV in October. “I didn’t enjoy that. I didn’t like losing to Liverpool and Manchester City last year, because they are your biggest rivals and the ones you always strive to defeat and are always in our way, particularly Liverpool, of course.”

United were shambolic that day. The defence could not get near Liverpool’s strikers, the midfield was anonymous and they never once looked like troubling Simon Mignolet in the opposition goal.

Moyes had inherited a title-winning squad and turned them into a mess of of a side, not even capable of qualifying for the Europa League. Once it was mathematically impossible to finish in the top four - after the 2-0 defeat to Everton in mid-April - a long-loaded gun was fired, and so was Moyes.