Here’s a question for you: Who is Manchester United’s official club captain?

The hullabaloo surrounding the England cricket skipper has shown how different the role is in the two sports.

I think Gary Neville is actually the club captain at United, but to be honest I’m not sure. He has been injured for most of the last two years so Ryan Giggs took over.

The Welshman is in and out of the team, though, so Rio Ferdinand has donned the armband the most recently. (The pair lifted the Champions League trophy in May, see right, with poor Gary left on the sidelines).

Let’s face it, it doesn’t really matter who the captain is on the football field. Technical areas are so large now that coaches can bark the orders and leave centre backs, traditionally the obvious skippers, to the defending.

In Spain, clubs often have several club captains and in Italy it generally goes to the most-experienced player.

Paolo Maldini, 40, is club captain at AC Milan but plays once every three games. If the captain was that important, wouldn’t they appoint one who played every game?

At Euro 2008 after Fabio Cannavaro was ruled out through injury, the Italy captaincy switched between Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluigi Buffon depending on whether Del Piero was picked or not. In this case, the situation made Italy’s bungling performances worse and is perhaps an instance where one clear skipper was needed.

In cricket, the captain is all-important given he decides field placings, bowling changes, declarations etc.

As we have seen with Kevin Pietersen’s demise, the way a captain conducts himself off the field with management is equally important.

Maybe football has learnt from this too. A club captain can be the bridge between the team and the coach but that doesn’t mean he has to be on the field.

PHOTO: Manchester United players Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Ryan Giggs and Tomasz Kuszczak celebrate with the Champions League trophy after defeating Chelsea in the final at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow May 22, 2008. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Liverpool seem to have got through their sticky patch and continued failures from Chelsea and Arsenal have limited the damage.

After convincing wins over Bolton and Newcastle Liverpool are clear at the top of the table and will stay there going into 2009.

So is it going to be a happy new year for Liverpool fans? I blogged  the other day about (what seems to me) Liverpool’s need for another forward or midfielder with the wow factor but Steven Gerrard seems to be playing that role to perfection just at the moment. Can he carry on in this form until the end of the season?

Liverpool’s biggest problem, of course, is the prospect of Manchester United continuing their ominous rise up the table. United have three games in hand and if they win all three they’ll be within a point of the top.

But still, optimism is creeping in. Here’s how Kai at the Liverpool Offside put it after the Newcastle win:

“And so with Chel$ki held to a 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage, we are 3 points clear heading into 2009!! I’m strangely starting to believe we might just nick it this year.”

redfloyd at Have You Ever Been to Liverpool? sounds more cautious in his report on the game:

“This can only be good for the team’s confidence going into the long home straight. Although we are top we have, with one or two exceptions, achieved this through perspiration rather than inspiration, in short we haven’t really got going. Perhaps the last two games are a first sign of us starting to put our foot on the accelerator? However, it is still a long, long treacherous journey. God speed!”

I think that’s about right, in that this season they have gone top while hardly ever playing really well. If the Newcastle performance is a sign of things to come, who knows?

So what do you think? Can Liverpool stay clear and get that first title since 1990? Or have they just delayed the inevitable slide away from the top two?