Gareth Roberts of The Anfield Wrap appeared on Friday's OTB AM to discuss the toxic element which exists between a portion of Liverpool and Manchester United fans.
The second successive Friday that Roberts joined OTB AM to discuss Liverpool, this latest visit came after he had been the target of relentless online abuse for voicing his opinion on football in the Covid-19 era.
An outlook since shared by former Manchester United captain Gary Neville, Roberts suggested that Liverpool's form had been hampered by the absence of fans while United dealt with the transition more effectively.
"I was surprised that the comment caused such a stir," he admitted, "but it does seem to me that there is a section of supporters on both sides who take that rivalry too far.
"For me, there's plenty of stick you can throw each other's way in a sporting sense without having to go down the road of talking about digs around homelessness or disasters. Munich, Heysel, Hillsborough - all of those things are off the table. Football isn't a place where we should be talking about death and tragedies.
"People are still impacted by those tragedies on a daily basis. Would you go up to the family or friend of someone effected in the street and say something like what people say online? No, you wouldn't. So why say it online?"
For some fans significant enough in number to get noticed, however, there are no inhibitions.
A native of Liverpool working with the Liverpool FC-oriented The Anfield Wrap, Roberts is enmeshed within the club's fan culture. Usually a match-going supporter, empty stadiums have lead to a greater leaning toward online forums for expressions of fandom.
The Liverpool alternative to regular OTB AM contributor and Manchester United fan Andy Mitten, while both sides wish very little sporting success toward the other Roberts is regularly confused and appalled by some of what is said in the name of 'banter'.
"It just seems a go-to to start dropping in phrases about Hillsborough and Heysel," he noted of what is often directed at Liverpool fans online.
"There's this thing - and it isn't just from Manchester United fans - that Scousers are bin-dippers - homelessness is not funny, poverty is not funny. How can you drop that phrase into conversation and applaud what Marcus Rashford is doing for child poverty?
"You get this awful thing then, 'Oh, it's just banter.' Banter needs to do one then, it is awful. If that's banter, I don't want any part of it. These are two northern cities that have suffered from a lot of the same problems. I worked for a decade in Manchester so I've got a lot of Mancunian friends and I know the city well."
Keen to demonstrate that relations between fans of both clubs are largely harmless, Roberts outlined how both Liverpool and Manchester United have attempted to cultivate a healthier rivalry.
Although the idea of fandom has altered and swollen into an online realm that is global in scale, he insisted that a comprehensive move toward more humane behaviour requires the willingness of older fans to inform younger generations.
"This needs to be challenged and talked about more," he insisted, noting how pernicious chants about both clubs have generally become less commonplace.
"I grew up in Huyton in Liverpool though and there was a big daub of graffiti that said "Munich '58" on one of the tougher estates, shall we say. That just was. You would see it scraped into desks at school.
"Looking back now as an adult, that's awful. Why were we singing about stuff like that? Equally, surely Manchester United fans wonder why there's songs about The Sun or Heysel.
"I've seen people mimicking being crushed in reference to Hillsborough, seen people pretending to fly planes, or whatever you want to call it. We don't need to go there. Those things should be off the table."
An advocate for a rivalry that is going anywhere but still requires some improvements off the field, you can read more of what Gareth Roberts has written on this topic via The Anfield Wrap here.
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