Bill Shankly’s famous tongue in cheek soundbite about there only being two teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves – has been celebrated, ridiculed and debated ever since the legendary Reds boss first uttered it.
Depending on which side of the Mersey divide you find yourself on, it was either an inspirational put-down or an uncalled-for display of triumphalism.
Those who knew the man best insist it was just a typical bit of gruff Scots humour laced with more than a liberal sprinkling of psychology.
Shankly's assertion has never been put to the test, but if Rafa Benitez is in a tinkering mood and wants to protect his key players for a title challenge it could be when Liverpool meet Everton twice in less than a week later this month.
Before last Sunday's draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup, the world's most famous cup competition trailed in a distant third in Liverpool's list of priorities – and that is exactly where it must stay.
As romantic and desirable as the FA Cup undoubtedly is, especially with Liverpool still to visit the new Wembley, it cannot become a diversion in a season when the Reds simply have to deliver that long-awaited challenge.
The fact the draw managed to pair them with their local rivals for the first time in 18 years has sent shockwaves of excitement rippling through Merseyside's football scene and has upgraded what could have been a bog standard tie had Liverpool been drawn against anyone else to "must win" status for fans of both clubs.
The number of text messages sent in the Merseyside area after ball number three was pulled out alongside ball number 28 was probably enough to keep the spectre of recession away from the doors of the leading mobile phone firms and such was the volume of traffic on internet message boards that more than one of them went into meltdown.
That's what derby matches do – they cause logic to be thrown out of the window and common sense to be replaced by fevered expectation.
Liverpool cannot allow that to happen to them though.
In the position they have got themselves into at the top of the Premier League, they finally have the chance to kick on and have a proper crack at bringing Shankly's bread and butter back to Anfield.
And for that reason Benitez must pick his team for the cup tie with more than one eye on the league game against Wigan which follows just three days later.
It may not go down well with FA Cup traditionalists who are fighting tooth and nail to stop the competition from becoming a glorified Carling Cup, and it would be far from ideal for the many Liverpool fans who rightly see any victory over Everton as one of the highlights of any season.
But Benitez is duty bound to put the Premier League first, second and last.
The Spaniard will not field two totally different teams in the double header against the Blues, but he is likely to ring the changes in keeping with his brief to produce a title-challenging team.
That's why if rotation is deemed to be the best policy, Benitez must select his strongest possible line-up in the league game against David Moyes' upwardly mobile side and make whatever changes are necessary in the cup tie.
And should he do so and Liverpool go on to win both games – which would be extremely difficult given Everton's recent noticeable improvement – the Reds boss will have gone a long way towards living up to Shankly's throwaway line decades after his predecessor came out with it.
Preston showed true dignity in cup defeat
Preston won a lot of friends at Anfield with the way they handled defeat against Liverpool in last week's FA Cup tie at Deepdale and rightly so.
Manager Alan Irvine - who was brought into coaching by Reds legend Kenny Dalglish before making his name as David Moyes' assistant at Everton - was typically generous in his praise of the team.
Irvine has a touch of class about him that is all too rare in modern football where so many managers look for any controversial incident to explain away a defeat.
Asked what he made of the incident in which Jamie Carragher tangled in the box with Jon Parkin, Irvine could easily have taken the Neil Warnock route and made a meal of it. But he didn't.
He simply responded: "There was an incident between Carragher and Parkin, and there was a lot of movement of Jon's shirt at the time, but that happens a lot and you don't always get penalties. I was not jumping up and down about it."
Irvine also accepted that Sean St Ledger's follow up header was rightly disallowed and it made a refreshing change to see a manager accept defeat in the right manner.
His attitude is clearly rubbing off on his players as well if goalkeeper Andy Lonergan's post match comments are anything to go by.
Lonergan had an excellent game against the Reds and had it not been for him Preston could have been cut adrift by half time.
But at the end of the game Lonergan refused to talk about his own efforts, preferring to shower accolades on the Liverpool team.
"I can't speak highly enough about Liverpool, they are unbelievable," said Lonergan.
"I feel privileged to play on the same pitch as Stevie Gerrard and Robbie Keane.”
A league table only ever looks really pretty when your own team is on top but Liverpool can take a great deal of comfort from their showing in the standings for 2008.
No trophies are awarded for performance over a calendar year of course but it does give an indication of how you are progressing and Liverpool could not have done much more than they did over the last 12 months.
According to statistics collated by local football statistican Ged Rea, only Chelsea collected more points than Liverpool during 2008 with the London club clocking up a total of 86 compared to their Merseyside rivals' tally of 84.
Manchester United trail behind in third, four points behind the Reds, although the Old Trafford outfit did play three games less than Liverpool in 2008.
Interestingly, Rafa Benitez's side won 13 points more than Arsenal in a year when the Reds boss was consistently compared unfavourably to Arsene Wenger.
But the most telling statistic of all is that Liverpool are the only one of the big four to win more points in the second half of 2008 than they did in the first – as sure a sign of improvement and progress as you can get.
Still, as everyone knows, it is the points they accumulate in the first half of 2009 that will decide whether or not they win prizes.
Depending on which side of the Mersey divide you find yourself on, it was either an inspirational put-down or an uncalled-for display of triumphalism.
Those who knew the man best insist it was just a typical bit of gruff Scots humour laced with more than a liberal sprinkling of psychology.
Shankly's assertion has never been put to the test, but if Rafa Benitez is in a tinkering mood and wants to protect his key players for a title challenge it could be when Liverpool meet Everton twice in less than a week later this month.
Before last Sunday's draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup, the world's most famous cup competition trailed in a distant third in Liverpool's list of priorities – and that is exactly where it must stay.
As romantic and desirable as the FA Cup undoubtedly is, especially with Liverpool still to visit the new Wembley, it cannot become a diversion in a season when the Reds simply have to deliver that long-awaited challenge.
The fact the draw managed to pair them with their local rivals for the first time in 18 years has sent shockwaves of excitement rippling through Merseyside's football scene and has upgraded what could have been a bog standard tie had Liverpool been drawn against anyone else to "must win" status for fans of both clubs.
The number of text messages sent in the Merseyside area after ball number three was pulled out alongside ball number 28 was probably enough to keep the spectre of recession away from the doors of the leading mobile phone firms and such was the volume of traffic on internet message boards that more than one of them went into meltdown.
That's what derby matches do – they cause logic to be thrown out of the window and common sense to be replaced by fevered expectation.
Liverpool cannot allow that to happen to them though.
In the position they have got themselves into at the top of the Premier League, they finally have the chance to kick on and have a proper crack at bringing Shankly's bread and butter back to Anfield.
And for that reason Benitez must pick his team for the cup tie with more than one eye on the league game against Wigan which follows just three days later.
It may not go down well with FA Cup traditionalists who are fighting tooth and nail to stop the competition from becoming a glorified Carling Cup, and it would be far from ideal for the many Liverpool fans who rightly see any victory over Everton as one of the highlights of any season.
But Benitez is duty bound to put the Premier League first, second and last.
The Spaniard will not field two totally different teams in the double header against the Blues, but he is likely to ring the changes in keeping with his brief to produce a title-challenging team.
That's why if rotation is deemed to be the best policy, Benitez must select his strongest possible line-up in the league game against David Moyes' upwardly mobile side and make whatever changes are necessary in the cup tie.
And should he do so and Liverpool go on to win both games – which would be extremely difficult given Everton's recent noticeable improvement – the Reds boss will have gone a long way towards living up to Shankly's throwaway line decades after his predecessor came out with it.
Preston showed true dignity in cup defeat
Preston won a lot of friends at Anfield with the way they handled defeat against Liverpool in last week's FA Cup tie at Deepdale and rightly so.
Manager Alan Irvine - who was brought into coaching by Reds legend Kenny Dalglish before making his name as David Moyes' assistant at Everton - was typically generous in his praise of the team.
Irvine has a touch of class about him that is all too rare in modern football where so many managers look for any controversial incident to explain away a defeat.
Asked what he made of the incident in which Jamie Carragher tangled in the box with Jon Parkin, Irvine could easily have taken the Neil Warnock route and made a meal of it. But he didn't.
He simply responded: "There was an incident between Carragher and Parkin, and there was a lot of movement of Jon's shirt at the time, but that happens a lot and you don't always get penalties. I was not jumping up and down about it."
Irvine also accepted that Sean St Ledger's follow up header was rightly disallowed and it made a refreshing change to see a manager accept defeat in the right manner.
His attitude is clearly rubbing off on his players as well if goalkeeper Andy Lonergan's post match comments are anything to go by.
Lonergan had an excellent game against the Reds and had it not been for him Preston could have been cut adrift by half time.
But at the end of the game Lonergan refused to talk about his own efforts, preferring to shower accolades on the Liverpool team.
"I can't speak highly enough about Liverpool, they are unbelievable," said Lonergan.
"I feel privileged to play on the same pitch as Stevie Gerrard and Robbie Keane.”
A league table only ever looks really pretty when your own team is on top but Liverpool can take a great deal of comfort from their showing in the standings for 2008.
No trophies are awarded for performance over a calendar year of course but it does give an indication of how you are progressing and Liverpool could not have done much more than they did over the last 12 months.
According to statistics collated by local football statistican Ged Rea, only Chelsea collected more points than Liverpool during 2008 with the London club clocking up a total of 86 compared to their Merseyside rivals' tally of 84.
Manchester United trail behind in third, four points behind the Reds, although the Old Trafford outfit did play three games less than Liverpool in 2008.
Interestingly, Rafa Benitez's side won 13 points more than Arsenal in a year when the Reds boss was consistently compared unfavourably to Arsene Wenger.
But the most telling statistic of all is that Liverpool are the only one of the big four to win more points in the second half of 2008 than they did in the first – as sure a sign of improvement and progress as you can get.
Still, as everyone knows, it is the points they accumulate in the first half of 2009 that will decide whether or not they win prizes.
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