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The last time Manchester United hosted Liverpool in the FA Cup was in January 2011, three months after Fenway Sports Group’s takeover at Anfield.

There was optimism in the away end that day, mainly because of Kenny Dalglish’s return as manager earlier that week.

Their rivals felt on a different level on and off the field, with a bigger stadium and considerably better team, one that eased to a 1-0 victory following Steven Gerrard’s early red card.

While Liverpool had entered a new era with a series of off-field appointments, United had an established executive culture that helped its commercial operation to underpin all of the club’s successes.

Over the past decade, these positions have largely flipped.

The latest accounts show a £123m debt, although £80m of that is because of the redevelopment of the Anfield Road stand.

Since United’s last Premier League title in 2013, they have finished above Liverpool in the table as many times as Liverpool have finished above them.

Yet Liverpool’s achievements have been greater: United have claimed four trophies, but no league titles or Champions Leagues.

What followed, essentially, was an aggressive copy-and-paste job.

The 2022-23 accounts showed that while both clubs’ revenues have increased considerably since 2011, the gap between them had roughly halved — and that after a particularly poor season by Liverpool’s recent standards, which ended with them out of the Champions League.

A year earlier, Liverpool finished above United in the money table for the first time in 26 years as Jurgen Klopp’s team nearly won the Premier League and reached three cup finals.

Even that, however, underlines the challenge facing Liverpool in trying to keep up with their historic rivals.

Liverpool, meanwhile, almost completed a clean sweep of every available competition and still only just edged ahead of them in terms of revenue.

All of this means the state of play is this: Liverpool, under Klopp, might field any team and beat any opponent, while United, under Erik ten Hag, might field any team and lose to any opponent.

United are chasing Liverpool in the most significant sporting senses, but a competitive balance away from the pitch dictates they do not need to perform particularly well to beat Liverpool off it.

It is a credit to FSG that they have created this reality in an era when former United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward claimed, in a conference call with shareholders in 2018, that “playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business”.

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This suggestion might have mutated into complacency in other parts of United’s operation, helping Liverpool catch up, but it would still be no surprise if FSG saw this as its ultimate ambition on Merseyside.

A sharper test of Liverpool’s place in the world might be just around the corner given the forthcoming summer upheavals, the most significant of which is Klopp’s departure.

It remains unclear who will replace him, but there is also a shift behind the scenes, with FSG recruiting Liverpool’s former sporting director Michael Edwards to lead its football operation, which will eventually involve acquiring another club.

A big part of Edwards’ early responsibilities will be bringing more balance to the structure and processes at Liverpool, one which is not as heavily influenced by the manager as it has been in recent years under Klopp.

It is a significant challenge and one being replicated 30 miles east in Manchester, where United’s new era is already well underway following the confirmation of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of 25 per cent of the club from the Glazer family in December.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe will control the footballing operations at Manchester United (Daniel LEAL / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

A new chief executive, the highly-regarded Omar Berrada, has been hired from Manchester City, while Dan Ashworth (most recently with Newcastle United) will become the new sporting director.

Ten Hag’s long-term future may be a source of conjecture, but given the lack of high-level sports experience in United’s executive hierarchy over the past decade, the appointments surely give them a better chance of developing a working relationship with the manager, whoever that may be, improving on-field performance and allowing the economic cycle to accelerate.

It would be naive if Liverpool did not see the threat.
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