Are Manchester United the old Liverpool of the 1990s?

The past, present and future will be colliding when the two behemoths of the north-west, arguably the football capital of England, clash on Super Sunday.

Liverpool's present is crystal clear: eight points clear at the top of the Premier League and the reigning champions of Europe, they are in their pomp - a position they haven't occupied for 30 years.

The contrast with Manchester United is stark. Their present circumstance is an all-time low in the Premier League era. But what will worry the United support the most isn't perhaps the present. It's the future. How long will the slump last?

The biggest fear inside Old Trafford is that Manchester United may be in danger of enduring what they have mocked, ridiculed and taunted for the last 30 years.

Simply put, are Manchester United in danger of becoming the old Liverpool of the 1990s?

Ahead of Manchester United and liverpool on Super Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League from 3pm, we look at the similarities between the United of today and the Liverpool of the 90s, and what they can learn…

Fergie leaves. What next?

Wednesday May 8, 2013. Amid the tributes, the timelines, the top 10s, the trophy haul graphics, the re-runs of '99 and the picture specials, there's intrigue among Manchester United fans. What happens next?

Sir Alex Ferguson has announced his retirement, shortly after securing United's 20th league title, his 13th in a period of dominance spanning two decaded

Some felt a fresh start. David Moyes was the successor, approved by Ferguson. Others saw an ageing team, winning one of the least competitive Premier League divisions in years.

Of course, it would take time for United to adjust. A year for sure, two years maybe, five years max. But six years and five months on, United are struggling. Their lowest ebb? No, there have been plenty to rival this moment for the four managers since Ferguson.

On Sunday they face a Liverpool side who have won 17 Premier League games in a row, with a European Cup wedged in the middle. It's painful, but the more United remember Liverpool's struggles throughout the nineties and noughties, the more parallels they can draw with the post-Fergie era.

In 1991, the English champions replaced a legendary Scot in Kenny Dalglish with a manager cut from the same cloth in Graeme Souness. Like Paul Scholes, Alan Hansen retired. They replaced established names with expensive names. The Bootroom, the fulcrum of Liverpool's success, was eventually demolished to make way for a press room.

Rivals improved. Training changed. Players changed. Football changed.

And having won 11 league titles in 18 years, the 1990 triumph was to be their last for a while. They're still waiting, but it feels more like a matter of 'when' than 'if'.

Liverpool's plummet

The plan was accepted: continue the dynasty by bringing in a younger Scot in the same mould. Moyes for Fergie, Souness for Dalglish.

"For two decades, Liverpool changed managers without building their own identity," said Ferguson in 2016.

Identity comes from the top down, but that 'top' doesn't necessarily have to be the manager. In fact, it doesn't have to be any one individual. As Sky Sports' Adam Bate wrote last week, culture creation at a club is essential, but the continuation of it should not depend on the boss. But the pull of freshening up and stamping your mark heading into a new era is an attractive one.

"I thought I would go in there and change it," Souness said on Monday Night Football last October. "I made many mistakes and my biggest crime was trying to make the changes too quickly."

Souness took over at Anfield in April 1991, and though a title race continued, two defeats in three days against Chelsea and Nottingham Forest meant Liverpool fell short to Arsenal.

"I was at Liverpool in 1991 and if I didn't think we would win another league title, you would have had to put me in a straitjacket," Jamie Redknapp, who signed from Bournemouth that year, recently said.

The FA Cup victory in 1992 was Souness' only trophy; a run of four wins in 16 matches ended in a sixth-place finish. It was unprecedented. Liverpool had finished outside of the top two just once in the previous 19 seasons.

But the rot had set in: It was sixth again in 1993, while Fergie was lifting his first Premier League trophy, and Souness was gone by January 1994.

"There are things that happened there when I was manager which I deeply regret," Souness added on MNF. "But I can't turn back the clock. How I wish I could, but I can't, and that hurts me badly."