After losing at Anfield 2-0 in 1992, a young Scouser asked for Giggs's signature and when Giggs obliged, he tore it up in his face.

"That was a shock," Giggs recalled to the Sunday Times. "I mean, when someone asks you for your autograph. For the first couple of years of my career it was the biggest disappointment. I'd had such a rise into the first team and everything had gone well and that was my first real slap. You grow up quickly in football and the important thing is how you react."

Ahead of today's big game at Old Trafford, Giggs said: "I think the fixture's as intense as it ever was. The foreigners who come to United soon realise this is a big game, in many people's eyes the biggest of the season."

It's something Giggs tries to convey.

"There's a responsibility among the older players at United to let the younger players, particularly foreign ones, know what it is to beat Liverpool, to perform at the top level."