Liverpool's Call To Arms: Roy's Last Game Perhaps, But Still Liverpool-Man Utd

Liverpool FC will take to the Old Trafford pitch on Sunday under a cloud of uncertainty and intense scrutiny—nothing new for the Merseyside club given events over the past year or more.

But it's all the more acute for the words and actions of fans in the past week following disappointing defeats over the Christmas and New Year period to Newcastle, Wolves and Blackburn Rovers.

Supporters have been calling for manager Roy Hodgson's head for the past couple of months in increasing numbers—indeed, some have been calling for it from the start of the season.

Tepid performances, naive tactical displays, poor results and a general lack of inspiration and leadership throughout the club have led to calls for Kenny Dalglish to return, calls for owners FSG to take action against the manager, lowered crowd attendances at home and away and even, disappointingly, graffiti on Anfield's exterior walls calling for Hodgson to leave the club.

Media outlets have spun rumour after rumour, which have spread like wildfire thanks to a variety of forums and social networking sites.

Countless managers have been linked with a position which isn't even officially available yet, while reasons for delays in announcements regarding Roy Hodgson's position have been as ridiculous as they are varied: Dalglish's cruise unable to be cut short, legal wrangling's yet to be sorted and a lack of serious options as replacements.

But on Sunday, all that must be put to one side for the good of the team—more, for the good of the club.

Lest we forget, Liverpool faces one of their biggest rivals—for some fans the biggest these days—Manchester United, at Old Trafford, in the third round of the English F.A. Cup.

Some people, rightly or wrongly, would have you believe that the F.A. Cup is no more than a glorified League Cup these days, that the magic from the world's oldest club competition is gone and it is merely another pointless exercise to clutter the football calendar before an inevitable conclusion with a final involving Manchester United or Chelsea.

Personally, I don't buy it one little bit. Nor do any other fans once their team reaches the final.

Make no mistake, whoever is there on the day wants to win it every bit as much as a league decider or a big European night match.

Liverpool exists to win trophies, as someone once famously said.

Well the F.A. Cup is a trophy, and a pretty good one in my book. It is also, along with the Europa League, the only chance we have this season of winning anything—therefore of doing the very thing that the club exists to do.

Beat Man United, and one giant foe, one huge opposition to winning the trophy, is already out the way at the first hurdle.

Who remembers the feeling when Owen slotted past Seaman in 2001? Or when Gerrard buried his piledriver past Shaka Hislop in the Millennium Stadium?

Go back further, to Michael Thomas and Ian Rush, to Rush and John Aldridge and those who came before them...Did it feel like a mediocre trophy then? Did it feel insignificant?

This is a huge game.

It is huge for Liverpool's manager for different reasons, but even those must work in our favour, as fans, that the team is prepared properly and, hopefully, selected according to strength.

Daniel Agger, Raul Meireles, Fabio Aurelio—all should be available for full selection again, as well as Dirk Kuyt, benched against Blackburn.

Common opinion has this match down as the last in the reign of Roy Hodgson, but I find it hard to believe he would actually have been told such.

He knows there is huge pressure on him, no doubt about that, but consecutive wins against Manchester United, Blackpool and Everton (Liverpool's next three games) would have a mesmerising effect on Liverpool's season and a profound change (again, rightly or wrongly) of media intensity on Hodgson's position.

This alone should have him champing at the bit to deliver a big result for the Reds, to save his own bacon as much as his team's.

It might not be ideal for Liverpool supporters, the reasons Roy might give it everything this one time, but if the end result is a Liverpool victory, it must be worth it—especially as he is likely to be gone regardless, sooner or later.

For too long the managerial position has divided fan opinion at Liverpool—whether Rafa Benitez should have left, who should have replaced him, how long Hodgson got to turn things around...

It has to stop. For Sunday at least, Liverpool's players need the full weight of the mighty Kop's support behind them.

The traveling support at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park this week was, despite being numerically reduced, absolutely fantastic.

The support was there for the club, no doubt about it, despite all the goings-on and the inevitably poor away result.

On Sunday, Liverpool faces their toughest away game of a season, which has thus far been indescribably awful outside of Anfield.

Already beaten on this ground in the Premier League (3-2), Liverpool now faces a Manchester United team in arguably better form than when the two sides clashed in September.

It is going to require a hugely improved performance from the players, but also a huge effort from the fans if we are to get through this tie unscathed.

Almost all fans want Roy out of Anfield, and his departure seems almost inevitable.

But whoever takes over the reins of Liverpool FC, and whenever it is, they will still have a holy mantra of the club to follow: to win trophies.

Let's make sure that on Sunday, we do everything we can to give them the opportunity to do just that in this season's F.A. Cup.

You can follow me on Twitter: @karlmatchett