Liverpool hero Steve McManamanan admits he would try to warn his foreign teammates about the intensity of the derby against Everton.
Liverpool host the Toffees in the early kickoff today.
"Absolutely we used to explain what it meant to the people, the fans and of course you have a bigger insight as a local player," McManaman told the Liverpool Echo. "Of course I was an Everton fan when I was growing up but it was still the same insight, the same passion and it's a very different game now.
"When I played I was playing against the likes of John Ebbrell and Duncan Ferguson and it was a fierce fight. I think it's less of a fierce fight nowadays. Those days when people say 'ah the script goes out the window on derby day' and 'form is irrelevant' I think that has gone a bit now in derbies because normally the better team does prevail a lot of the time.
"Back then there was the 'dogs of war' and all that type of stuff. You know, tackling hard, sendings-off and things like that so you had to really use patience at times and you couldn't get caught up in the atmosphere because it was ferocious at times. So you had to talk to people.
"I lived in Kirkdale and moved to Walton and I lived five minutes away from Goodison Park when I played against Everton. I could walk to Goodison Park and I was playing against them, so I knew what it meant and people would tell me the week of the game what it meant to them so it was indelibly linked with both sides because I had friends who were Liverpool and Everton fans."