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A week to judge Brendan Rodgers and Louis van Gaal

By on September 9, 2015

Louis van Gaal told the media to judge him after three months; three months into his tenure at Manchester United and his side drew West Bromwich Albion 2-2. At Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers asked for three years. Three years later and Liverpool lost 5-0 to Stoke City. Perhaps they serve as examples of why not to bait the media when they could work at United and Liverpool forever and never restore the club to the very heights of their former glories.

Although their derbies continue to attract some of the biggest audiences in the Premier League and feature some of the best players, the media isn’t focused about the here and now ahead of their upcoming Premier League meeting this weekend. Sky Sports took a nostalgic trip down memory lane in their ad for the game, with clips of Roy Keane, Graeme Souness, Eric Cantona and Steven Gerrard.

Yet for United, even Sir Alex Ferguson retirement seems a far too distant memory. £300 million dollars of net transfer spend since and the club still has a long way back to the top.

But forget the bygone eras of legends when it wasn’t just about when the next title would come, but when the twentieth came; Manchester United would, well, they already have paid more than £300 million to be half decent (by their standards, at least) and in or around the title race. With the transfer window closed, this match is a bigger opportunity than any other for each side to set their expectations for the coming season.

In the context of the coming match, there are a few keys for United’s men. With Adnan Januzaj, Robin van Persie, James Wilson and Angel di Maria all allowed to depart, United’s depth up front will come under scrutiny.

However, the most pressing question for United is whether Van Gaal can successfully bring David de Gea back into the fray. Whoever was to blame for the De Gea transfer fiasco, it is now van Gaal’s task to right the situation. Given the inconsistency of Sergio Romero in the position thus far this season along with De Gea’s monumental performance for the club last year, it could make or break United’s defense this season.

For this part, Rodgers has come under even more scrutiny of late. His two-year path to success at Liverpool has been juxtaposed against an unravelling that only took one summer and one transfer: the sale of Luis Suarez. A year on, beginning the fourth in his tenure at Liverpool, and the Northern Irishman is on time essentially bought by the success of his 2013/14 campaign. Nothing short of qualification for the Champions League will be enough payment in return.

With just two goals in their first four Premier League matches, they will want to get on the scoreboard above anything else. Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke have all showed individual moments of brilliance to squeeze seven out of twelve points from Liverpool’s opening four league games and now it becomes a question of getting them to work together.

Neither side is at rock bottom anymore and they’re both on their way back up. This match will go a long way to setting each team’s expectations for the coming season. The only difference between their upcoming meeting and the derbies of old is that it’s not a battle to be the best anymore; it’s a battle not to be the worst and get caught on the wrong side of the other’s resurgence. For Premier League fans, however, that’s just as interesting.

Photo credit: Bernard Chan, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.