What was the most intimidating thing about playing at Anfield?
If it were a multiple-choice question, there would be plenty of answers.
Gerrard.
Owen.
Carragher.
But if an away player were allowed to choose only one, he might ignore the names on the pitch entirely.
He might choose the people in the stands.
The Kop.
It was more than a stand.
Generation after generation of Liverpool supporters had filled it, turning one end of Anfield into one of the most famous sights and sounds in English football.
When "You'll Never Walk Alone" rolled around the stadium, it was impossible not to feel it.
Thousands of voices became one.
Scarves rose into the air.
The noise seemed to pour down from the stands and onto the pitch.
At Anfield, the song was not merely an anthem.
It was a declaration.
Liverpool were still here.
Liverpool were still fighting.
And Liverpool would not surrender quietly.
The Kop had driven the team through countless famous European nights and improbable comebacks.
Only by standing on the pitch at Anfield could a player truly understand its effect.
The noise surrounded you.
Pressed against you.
Even experienced professionals could find themselves affected by it.
Michael Owen.
Steven Gerrard.
Jamie Carragher.
Players raised inside Liverpool's culture understood it better than anyone.
They carried the identity of the club onto the pitch and had spent years defending Anfield against anyone who came looking for a victory.
...
For New Manchester United, the fixture carried another edge.
Their roots in Manchester United supporter culture meant Liverpool were hardly ordinary opponents.
The rivalry Manchester United had built with Liverpool over decades had inevitably carried over in some form.
That made the trip to Anfield one of the most anticipated matches of the season.
Mourinho selected his strongest available side.
Liverpool's recent form had been inconsistent.
If there was an opportunity to leave Anfield with three points, he wanted to take it.
Everyone knew it would be difficult.
From the opening whistle, however, New Manchester United's front four caused Liverpool enormous problems.
Drogba.
Cristiano Ronaldo.
Palacio.
Kaká.
It was arguably the most dangerous attacking unit in the Premier League at that point of the season.
Liverpool lasted less than five minutes.
Drogba received the ball inside the penalty area with a defender tight behind him.
He used his strength to hold off the challenge, brought the ball under control, turned, and shot.
Dudek reacted quickly.
The power beat him anyway.
0-1.
New Manchester United had their early lead.
They did not stop.
The pressure increased.
Palacio struck in the 28th minute.
Four minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo added another.
0-3.
Anfield had fallen silent.
Liverpool looked as though they were about to become the latest team overwhelmed by Mourinho's attack.
At half-time, Houllier was furious.
Djimi Traoré, being used out of position on the right because Finnan was unavailable, had endured a miserable opening forty-five minutes.
Cristiano repeatedly attacked him from New Manchester United's left.
Traoré could barely contain him.
At the other end, Liverpool were not doing much better.
Owen had only recently returned from injury and began on the bench.
Houllier instead started Heskey alongside the young Florent Sinama-Pongolle.
Neither found much space.
Vidić and Curtis were becoming increasingly comfortable as a centre-back partnership.
Heskey had been largely neutralised.
Liverpool's midfield was also struggling to establish control.
Their attack never developed any rhythm.
Houllier knew how difficult the situation was.
New Manchester United had been one of the best sides in England all season.
Alongside Arsenal, they remained unbeaten in the Premier League.
They also possessed one of the division's most productive attacks.
Houllier's first priority in the second half was therefore not to chase three goals immediately.
It was to stop conceding.
He instructed Gerrard to offer more protection on the right and told the entire team to regain its defensive shape.
For a while, very little changed.
The minutes disappeared.
Liverpool supporters could see no obvious route back into the match.
New Manchester United, meanwhile, appeared perfectly content with a three-goal lead.
Then something began in the Kop.
Quietly at first.
"You'll Never Walk Alone..."
A few voices.
Then hundreds.
Then thousands.
The song spread around Anfield.
The volume grew.
And with every verse, the atmosphere changed.
It seemed to reach the Liverpool players one by one.
The first to respond was Gerrard.
Liverpool's captain drove forward with renewed aggression.
After New Manchester United lost possession during an attack, Gerrard collected the loose ball in his own half and immediately surged down the right.
He crossed the halfway line.
Kept going.
Then sent a long diagonal ball towards the penalty area.
For most of the match, Vidić had dominated Heskey.
This time, the Serbian lost concentration for half a second.
Heskey attacked the cross.
He rose above his marker and directed a powerful header down towards the turf.
The bounce took the ball beyond Čech.
1-3.
Anfield exploded.
The Kop became even louder.
New Manchester United's travelling supporters tried to answer.
There simply were not enough of them.
Liverpool had found belief.
Three minutes later, Gerrard struck again.
He collected possession outside the penalty area.
Nobody closed him quickly enough.
Gerrard did not hesitate.
He drove a shot through the crowd.
Čech's view was blocked by several bodies.
By the time he saw the ball, it was already past him.
2-3.
Two goals in three minutes.
Suddenly, what had looked like a comfortable away victory was turning into one of those nights Anfield seemed to produce from nowhere.
Houllier reacted immediately.
Sinama-Pongolle came off.
Owen came on.
Diouf was also withdrawn.
Harry Kewell replaced him.
Both changes had an immediate effect.
Owen had been on the pitch for less than five minutes when he found a gap between Curtis and Vidić.
One touch took him into space.
Then his acceleration did the rest.
Curtis chased.
Vidić tried to recover.
Neither could catch him.
Čech came off his line.
Owen shaped as though he would shoot early.
Čech committed himself.
Owen took the ball around him and rolled it into the empty net.
3-3.
Anfield erupted again.
Mourinho stood on the touchline in disbelief.
For one brief moment, he looked as though he wanted to march onto the pitch himself, drag several players off by their shirts, and remind them that the crowd could not actually score.
The problem was that Liverpool's momentum had infected the match.
His players were responding emotionally.
Liverpool attacked harder.
New Manchester United attacked back.
The structure of the game was beginning to disappear.
That was exactly what Mourinho did not want.
He made his first defensive adjustment.
Cristiano Ronaldo came off.
Yaya Touré replaced him.
New Manchester United now had three central midfielders.
The objective was simple.
Slow the match down.
Protect the centre.
Regain control.
They had gone from 3-0 up to 3-3 in roughly ten minutes.
Several players looked stunned.
Liverpool looked completely transformed.
Gerrard, Kewell, Murphy, and Hamann began controlling the midfield through sheer aggression and energy.
Even with Beckham, De Rossi, and Yaya Touré trying to resist, New Manchester United struggled to impose themselves.
It almost felt as though some invisible force were pushing Liverpool forward.
That was Anfield.
Momentum could not be measured in the same way as possession or passing accuracy.
But players felt it.
In football, once one side began to believe and the other began to doubt, a match could tilt very quickly.
Mourinho waited to see whether introducing Yaya would stabilise things.
It did not do enough.
So he changed again.
Palacio came off.
Maicon went on.
The Brazilian took over the right side and gave New Manchester United more defensive protection.
Only then did Liverpool's pressure begin to slow.
"What a bunch of lunatics," Mourinho muttered.
He hated losing control of a match.
For twenty minutes in the second half, Liverpool had dragged his team into exactly the kind of contest they wanted.
But New Manchester United had built their own reputation on resilience.
Once the initial shock faded, Mourinho's players began fighting their way back into the game.
The match became direct.
Fast.
Physical.
End to end.
Neither team wanted the draw.
For Mourinho, there was another consideration.
Arsenal were next.
He did not want his players exhausting themselves completely before that fixture.
But he did not want to leave Anfield with anything less than three points either.
Eventually, his eyes moved towards his final substitution.
75th minute.
Messi stood up from the bench.
He had five minutes to warm up.
Houllier immediately noticed.
The Liverpool manager had seen what the sixteen-year-old had done at Old Trafford against Manchester United.
He was not going to underestimate him.
But Mourinho's intentions were unclear.
Only Drogba and Kaká remained as recognised attackers after his previous changes.
Was he preparing to remove one of them and conserve energy for Arsenal?
Houllier waited.
Then the ball went out of play.
The fourth official raised the board.
17.
Messi.
Then the number of the player leaving the pitch.
12.
De Rossi.
Houllier frowned.
"A midfielder?"
De Rossi had started in place of Essien and played well in the first half.
The second half had been more difficult, but that could hardly be blamed entirely on him.
New Manchester United as a whole had lost control.
Liverpool had simply overwhelmed them for a period.
Houllier decided not to react immediately.
He still had one substitution available.
First, he wanted to see where Messi played.
He did, however, tell Gerrard to remain alert whenever the Argentine came near his side.
Messi entered.
Almost immediately, New Manchester United had a throw-in.
Evra found Beckham.
Beckham touched it into Kaká.
Kaká returned it towards Evra, who drove forward down the left.
Liverpool's defensive line shifted across.
Evra saw the movement.
Then he played a through ball down the channel towards the byline.
Gerrard had been watching Messi.
For a second, he looked inside towards Kaká's late run.
When he looked back, Messi was gone.
The teenager had drifted across the pitch and appeared on the opposite flank.
He reached the ball near the byline.
Traoré closed him down.
Messi shaped as though he would move inside.
Traoré adjusted.
Messi suddenly poked the ball through his legs with his left foot.
Then he ran around the outside of him, briefly stepping beyond the touchline before cutting back onto the pitch to collect it.
Nutmeg.
Gone.
Hyypiä came across immediately.
Dudek moved towards his near post and narrowed the angle.
Messi entered the penalty area.
Rather than shoot, he cut the ball back behind Hyypiä.
Drogba had dragged his marker towards the far post.
Liverpool's defence had not recovered quickly enough from the transition.
A huge gap opened behind Hyypiä.
Messi's pass rolled straight into it.
Kaká had sprinted the entire length of the attack from midfield.
He arrived at full speed.
No controlling touch.
No hesitation.
He simply struck the ball first time.
Dudek had no chance.
3-4.
Mourinho exploded with delight.
He punched the air.
That goal changed everything.
Liverpool had spent almost the entire second half fighting their way back into the match.
Now, with little time remaining, they were behind again.
Mourinho immediately began gesturing towards his players.
Drop a little deeper.
Close the spaces between the lines.
Do not give Owen room to run into.
The England striker's speed remained Liverpool's greatest threat.
Messi received different instructions.
Stay higher.
Keep moving across the attacking third.
Force Liverpool's defenders to think twice before pushing forward.
The idea worked.
In the 87th minute, Messi intercepted a loose pass high up the pitch.
He immediately attacked Hyypiä.
The defender realised he was in trouble and brought him down just outside the penalty area.
Free kick.
Beckham stepped up.
His effort was heading towards goal, but Dudek produced a strong save.
Liverpool survived.
The warning, however, forced their back line to remain cautious.
They could no longer throw everyone forward without thinking about Messi on the counter.
The final whistle eventually arrived.
Liverpool 3-4 New Manchester United.
A victory.
But certainly not a comfortable one.
New Manchester United had conceded three goals in a single match for the first time that season.
Even more worrying, all three had come in a devastating ten-minute spell.
Mourinho knew he could not ignore it.
Especially because the next opponent possessed arguably the most dangerous attack in the Premier League.
Arsenal.
But before New Manchester United turned their attention towards Highbury, some good news arrived.
(To be continued.)