By Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven)   For two clubs of such European pedigree, Thursday’s Europa League clash could be considered something of an indignity for both Liverpool and Manchester United. The second-tier of continental competition is not where either team wants to be right now, yet this is all they have. They might not like it, but their respective seasons now come down to the Europa League.   Thursday night’s match at Anfield could define Liverpool and Man Utd’s seasons, respectively. The Europa League has never before mattered so much in England, with the Champions League spot on offer to the winners dangling in front of the Premier League duo’s noses like a golden carrot. Salvation is the prize to the winners of the last 16 tie.  

  For Jurgen Klopp and Louis Van Gaal, the Europa League is now a kind of cruel Hunger Games. Lose, and a spear will be driven through their campaigns, leaving their side some way short of where they were expected to be by now. Win, however, and all that has come before for the victors will be forgotten.    Well, almost. United in particular are suffering a dismal season, with Van Gaal widely expected to leave the club at the end of the 2015/16 campaign. With regards to his future at Old Trafford, winning the Europa League might not make any difference at all, as Jose Mourinho lurks, waiting for his turn on the hot-seat. But it would at least Van Gaal to preserve his reputation, handing the club over with a Champions League place in hand.  

  Liverpool, too, are similarly suffering teething problems under new manager Klopp, although there have been glimpses of progress under the German’s charge. Successive wins over Manchester City and a 6-0 thumping of Aston Villa have demonstrated what the former Borussia Dortmund coach is attempting to do at Anfield, but to date his efforts have been undermined by infuriating inconsistency.   The Reds have already lost at home to Man Utd this season but there is a sense that should Klopp’s side hit top form they could put down a marker against their biggest rivals. Van Gaal and his players have spent the past few weeks and months scrambling, and they might have to scramble once more to get a result on Thursday.   Of course, it could be debated whether the addition of a Champions League qualification spot for the winners has actually bolstered the Europa League’s standing in the game, or rather undermined it. But nonetheless, the competition has found an edge this season - at least in the way it is viewed within English soccer circles.   

  “In football it is normal,” Van Gaal insisted when asked whether it was an embarrassment for two teams of Liverpool and Man Utd’s stature to be facing each other in a secondary competition. “It is not normal that one team is dominating for 20 years in a row as champions. How many titles have Liverpool and how many titles Manchester United? It was another time. You live in the past. You live in the past and you have to live in the present.”   The worry for a club like United, though, is that - as Van Gaal says - Europa League participation does become normal. Everything at Old Trafford is geared towards the Champions League, yet with competition at the top end of the Premier League so intense it’s not inconceivable that the club could become exiled from the top tier. They could become Liverpool.   Liverpool, on the other hand, are striving to one day not being Liverpool. The Reds have become soccer’s byword for fallen giants over the past two decades or so, never quite following through on various signs of promise. A Europa League triumph would at least give them something of a platform as a Champions League club. Maybe this time Klopp wouldn’t squander it like Brendan Rodgers did.   So while neither Liverpool nor Man Utd really want to be playing on a Thursday night, they must look at where victory could take them. The Europa League might not be loved, but both clubs are surely grateful for its presence right now.