It turns out that Liverpool are the real winners so whoop-de-doo

Editor F365
Man Utd and Liverpool players
Man Utd and Liverpool players

‘Liverpool exposed a brutal truth to Man United’ so actually, Sunday was a success. Elsewhere, a Man Utd player went CRAZY…

 

Liverpool are the real winners here
The first thing Mediawatch wonders when Liverpool stumble is how the bombastic Liverpool media will react. On this occasion, the answer is ‘pretty much exactly as you might expect’.

So the day after Liverpool draw to lose top spot in the Premier League despite having 427 shots, this is the leading headline on the Liverpool Echo:

What Stretford End did to goad Jurgen Klopp was feeble – Liverpool exposed a brutal truth to Man United

Yes, well done Liverpool; you have ‘exposed a brutal truth to Man United’. Get the f*** in. Smashed it.

To be fair to Paul Gorst, he does not lead his ‘verdict from Old Trafford’ with such ludicrous point-scoring over the team currently in sixth place in the Premier League, but clearly somebody did not like him saying that Jurgen Klopp’s men ‘only have themselves to blame’ and that the ‘lack of control is startling at times’.

No, that simply won’t do; this is Liverpool and the key takeaway from this game is that ‘Liverpool have exposed a brutal truth to Man Utd’, who were presumably under the impression that this season was actually going bloody brilliant.

And what is this ‘brutal truth’, that is never described as such by Gorst himself…

That the once great Manchester United have been reduced to the role of spoilsports in a race that involves their two biggest enemies and the club with whom they share so much title history acutely sums up where the Erik ten Hag project sits right now.

Yes, they’re certainly reeling after that ‘exposure’. We imagine Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Dave Brailsford are shaking their heads this morning at the news that they have been ‘reduced to the role of spoilsports’ on Sunday, after thinking everything was rosy on Sunday. They should thank Liverpool for this ‘truth’.

MAILBOX: Van Dijk’s Liverpool ‘have a staggeringly misplaced confidence they can control games’

 

This means more
‘Liverpool may end this season as a quiz answer to the most unlikely sporting question,’ writes Chris Bascombe in the Daily Telegraph.

‘Which team scored more than 100 goals but lost the title because they were not clinical enough?’

That’s not a quiz question; that’s a ponder. And that won’t cut it in any quiz in any pub near Mediawatch.

Will the quiz master accept ‘Arsenal’ as an answer? Obviously it was a whole season ago so difficult for anybody to remember on Merseyside.

MY GOD, that game was CRAZY
It was a mad old four-goal game that merited more than 16 Conclusions but obviously, the football is the last thing the tabloid websites want to be writing about. That’s so last century. Here’s The Sun:

‘MY GOD’ Neville and Carragher’s reaction to Man Utd vs Liverpool emerges in behind-the-scenes clip but fans spot bigger concern

‘Emerges’ is excellent, and definitely suggests something a little more subtle than a tweet from a Sky Sports account with over 12 million followers.

‘MY GOD’ is in capitals so must be important. Which might come as a surprise to the Man Utd fan with 127 followers who replied to said ’emerging’ clip and garnered exactly zero likes and retweets.

Elsewhere on The Sun:

Antony held back from referee by Man Utd team-mate after ‘going CRAZY’ during Liverpool clash

In quote marks and in CAPITALS. And yet absolutely nobody said that Antony was going ‘CRAZY’. It’s almost like he didn’t go crazy at all. And that the football was actually the most interesting thing that happened at Old Trafford. How bizarre.

 

Supercomputer says yes
Mediawatch does not often agree with the Daily Mirror‘s John Cross but he’s absolutely right about supercomputers. Not about how to use apostrophes, obviously, but we all have our flaws.

So we wonder how he feels about the Mirror football site deciding on Monday morning that this is the very biggest story in football?

Supercomputer predicts Premier League title winner after Liverpool blow Man Utd chance

And you will be utterly shocked to learn that Manchester City – who have won five of the last six Premier League titles – are once again the favourites to win the Premier League title. We suspect you are as confounded as we are.

And this is how the story begins:

Liverpool’s chances of winning the Premier League have taken a huge hit after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Well no sh*t. And Crossy would be well within his rights to point out that his own match report from the game already made that pretty obvious point. But obviously he is no supercomputer, merely a man who loves the Arsenal and rather sweetly thinks ‘Liverpool handed the title initiative to Arsenal’.

Mediawatch