Is United v Liverpool a true Derby match?

Chesterlestreet

Man of the crowd
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
19,534
Also, there are several "classic" encounters in football that aren't derbies - and that are, in fact, far more important to fans than actual derbies. So, there's no need to label it "derby" to make it sound more important.

It's United-Liverpool - the biggest clash in English football. But it ain't a derby - sorry (not that I understand why that would bother anyone - Liverpool has been bigger for United fans for my entire lifetime than the actual derby, even after City's oily transformation).
 

Inigo Montoya

Leave Wayne Rooney alone!!
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
38,543
City will always our derby game. Liverpool rivals, as the two most famous clubs in English football but not a traditional’derby’.
 

MU655

Full Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2020
Messages
1,258
Derby just means an important sporting event. Manchester United v Man City is actually a local derby.

Derby is used in horse racing despite the riders being from different countries, even back when the races were first run.
 

Dante

Average bang
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
25,280
Location
My wit's end
If Barca-Real is El Clasico and if Bayern-Dortmund is Der Klassiker, you could possibly call United-Liverpool The Classic.

Though thinking about it, it doesn't scan well enough in English. Maybe The Red Classic would work better.
 

Giggs86

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
3,632
Location
USA
‘El Trafico’ is quite good. It’s an actual derby as well.
Had to google it, had no idea. Also found out there is a second team in LA besides Galaxy. Just shows how much I know about the MLS.
 

Moonwalker

Full Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
3,821
The problem with these things is that it isn't analytic philosophy where somebody would try to define a term for posterity and then we can all go back to the original author and his exact definition.

If you wanna answer 'what does derby mean?'; you'll find yourself in an epistemological Bermuda Triangle, with several competing theories of how and when the term originated (horse race, rugby match, football match, extinct sport), and no helpful heuristic to decide the question. Very fertile ground for everybody to be right.

With the usage being as varied and widespread as it is though, the only people being weird about it are the ones claiming a very particular meaning (a football match between rivals in the same town). I don't know where the passion for this particular meaning comes from, but that just seems like arguing for a bizarrely specific meaning, with no basis for it whatsoever. You're obviously connoting some aspect of the original event with the meaning when you say 'derby' whilst abstracting from other aspects that are not 'essential'. Now why 'town' would be this semantic invariant is absolutely beyond me. You could just as well say that it has to mean an exact town then, or an exact sport. "Well, it's not a derby if it's not a horse race for me". "Can't be a derby if it's not rugby, innit?". "Only a derby if it's in Derbyshire if I'm honest".

Further problems for people arguing for this peculiar meaning come from the plethora of usages that don't fit into it, all well established and well known, as many people have already pointed out (the Roses derby, Tyne-Wear derby etc.) Also, numerous well known syntagms would make absolutely no sense with that meaning. 'Local derby' is a pleonasm if the term derby already means 'from the same town'.

For people complaining abut the recency of these impure usages. It's been called 'Derby d'Italia' since 1967.
 
Last edited:

Spoony

The People's President
Joined
Oct 27, 2001
Messages
63,201
Location
Leve Palestina.
That's the correct answer.

So, yeah.

You can call it whatever you like, of course, but it's not a (local) derby in the traditional sense.
Indeed.

Well it's derby day!! Let's do this. Anyway growing up the City game was the biggy for me. It didn't have the intensity of the Liverpool game but it felt good to wind up Blues.
 

TODDY

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 6, 2021
Messages
3
You wouldn't say City V Everton is a Derby, so neither is United V Liverpool.
The rivalry behind today's match is more like a continuation of the punch up between the 2 citys dating back to the Industrial revolution
 

Eric's-collar

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
46
More than just a football rival, not a classic derby, as in same city, but more of a historical one