A strong person builds other people up.
A line I like to remember, I feel Klopp is very much that.
Apologies if this has been covered but Iâve not been feeling that well and wonât be able to get through 500 posts just to write this out.
One thing that Iâve seen is a silly amount of United fans still trying to gloat on social media platforms. And to be honest when I was arguing with them it took me while to figure out why I found it so enjoyable.
I live in Northern Ireland and thereâs probably a more diverse fanbase for different clubs in whichever city, town, etc over here and because of that Iâve had a lot of friends who are United fans.
Unfortunately for me when they started winning titles under Fergie I was just starting secondary schools and so had to take their boasting on the chin because their team were actually winning things.
This past few days on social media Iâve personally seen hundreds of people making posts gloating/boasting in the exact same way my friends would have done through those successful Fergie years.
And what were they boasting about?
Nearly all of them used the argument that theyâre 7 points ahead of us in the league and us not winning a trophy this year. My response to all those posters has been to say âwell done. I can accept and freely admit that weâve had a very poor season by our standards along with the fact that youâre having one of their best seasons since Fergie left. Yet even while weâre in the middle of a bad season and youâre apparently âbackâ we still managed to put seven past youâ
It was then that it clicked with me. This is how low their expectations have dropped to.
In Fergieâs time being third in the league was definitely not worth gloating over. Having a decent result in Europe"s secondary trophy wasnât worth boasting about. Even winning the League Cup didnât cause THAT much celebration because they were used to winning.
Ffs as much as he hated us I donât think Fergie would have considered a good season if they finished 7 points ahead if they only came third in the league. From having a winnerâs mentality then to celebrate a season where they finish third with the league cup and above us when weâve been in a transitional period and our worst season in years.
How the âmightyâ have fallen⌠Itâs honestly been years since I read so much disillusion than those United idiots posting on social media.
There is no doubt. In situations like that is is not the fall that is the killer, itâs the false dawns you experience in your attempts to get back up. I remember signing Clough and thinking our long drought was over only for it to go no where. Beating Utd in the 01 charity shield and going on to finish above them in the league for the first time in over a decade, only for the Anelka-Diouf thing to happen the following summer. The trek back up is full of self doubt and dread while simultaneously, almost paradoxically, over reading the signs of your improvement.
Iâve completely, and intentionally, cut myself off from football media this season. Stopped listening to podcasts about football, stopped looking at articles online etc.
So I think that may be why I was pretty surprised to hear so much praise for Man Utd going into this game. Rashford mentioned for the Ballon dâOr? Man Utd being âbackâ while 14 points off the top of the league. All very strange.
Then to compound that weirdness, after the game Neville spoke about how brilliant Man Utd have been over the last few months and that theyâve earned a bad day. Here is who Man Utd have beaten since the World Cup⌠Burnley, Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth, Everton, Charlton, Man City, Nottingham Forest again, Reading, Nottingham Forest AGAIN, Crystal Palace, Leeds, Leicester, Barcelona, Newcastle, West Ham.
While Iâm happy to admit that winning is good against anyone Iâm a little underwhelmed. Good win over Man City and Barcelona. Newcastle also although they have been terrible for a while now.
Apart from that arenât they expected to win all those games - especially since about 1/4 of those wins came against Nottingham Forest and twonof them were against Championship teams.
Maybe, just maybe, Man Utdâs run was being hyped up a little too much by a media that knows articles about Man Utd will get readers.
This has been a weird season for a number of reasons, which is partly why we have been mostly out of sorts, weird results for a lot of other teams expected to do better (Spurs, Leicester, Westham, City). And yes, Arsenal are taking full advantage of it. If us and City got adequate rest and time between matches, Arsenal wouldnât be close to the top.
For us in particular the problems have been compounded by the fact that we had the frankly detrimental preseason and the subsequent fatigued players and injuries. Coupled with the fact that we needed at least one new midfielder to freshen the engine room after the exhausting previous season (and Arthur was NOT the answer).
But in generalâŚ
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The squeezed first half of the season produced strange results and the general quality of football dropped IMO.
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The WC messed up the normal fitness regimen of teams, us included, and we were affected more than most because of the original reasons I mentioned.
I canât help but see the disruption of having the WC in the middle of the season being the primary culprit. -
We are coming around to our usual selves, but it has taken this long to get there because of all the reasons I mentioned. VVD getting injured is also a telltale sign that this season has been tough in even the most resilient.
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The WC frankly was low quality football-wise. Yes it made for a spectacle but there were loads of mistakes. IMO the better team lost the final. They took advantage of the situation and got the trophy. A lot of the individuals who win the WC arenât doing so well in their club teams.
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This CL has been low quality as a knock-on effect of the compressed schedule as well. Havenât seen any real sparkling performances. And a lot of the matches have been pedestrian.
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Arsenal arenât the only teams to have (inadvertently) taken advantage of the situation. So have Tottenham. Theyâve stunk up the joint with their play but happen to find themselves in 4th spot. But not for long as some normalcy is returning.
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And now I come to Man Utd. This team are frankly an average team masquerading as the new dawn. We have finally put our ducks in a row and destroyed them. If more PL teams recognise their Emperorâs-new-clothes situation then they might actually drop out of top 4, never mind challenging for the title.
Utd are above us in the table at the moment⌠After what happened to them on Sunday at Anfield will have every team in the bottom seven going at them now as they hunt points for survival⌠3rd spot is up for grabsâŚit became up for grabs from Sunday night 
Robbie Savage was an average player. So, basically, he is just maintaining his standards.
Some random Joe Public guy phoned into Five Live and as the debate was heating up some, the guy stated to âexpertâ Robbie Savage, that in Savageâs playing career he had only ever won one league cup winners medal - Savage replied to this random guy by saying⌠âIt is one more than youâŚâ
WTF⌠just how much more infantile could Savage get ehâŚ!
Why oh why canât pundits have a limited time in this role like their playing careers and give others a chance⌠seems once these gobshites get on the gravy train of talking shite, they on it for ever and ever
I was ecstatic after the 5 - 0 at the olâ toilet last season, but this seems to have taken me even higher. Stills buzzing and â just canât get enoughâ to rob that title from a 80s song
The 9-0 aggregate last season seemed to sum up our total ascendancy over Man U at that time. We were in another league.
This result, although highly enjoyable, feels more like a flash in the pan and not truly indicative of the relative strength of the clubs.
Sorry, I know nobody wants to hear that.
I know the 7-0 destroys the goal difference a bit but they are generally very low for say a top 5-6 all teams bar Ars and Man City.
I think Iâd wait to see the relative gap between the two at the end of the season. Itâs currently 7 points but effectively thatâs that game in September and yet this season has been an under delivery to the point of crisis for one and an over delivery for the other.
Gaps are determined over 3-4 seasons not one season and unless they collapse and we turn it around in Madrid and go on to win they will evidently had a better season a far better one. It ultimately only tells us based on this season and after the last season we scraped CL in the next one it could just be circumstances we will only be able to tell 4-5 years from now what the Gulf probably was.
2 reports now emerging that show Robbo cheatingâŚold retired ref Hackett, says it blows his mindâŚwell bloody hell mate go and have a look at Gnasher in every gameâŚand especially ours, as he did a full frontal âshot in the headâ actionâŚpls look at the main protagonists, darling Arry, and Tom Daley,this lot need looking at firstâŚyou silly old fart
All I said was âI have to be home by 7â and he went off on one
The gift that keeps on giving :0)
Yes it is
Just watched the highlights/goals and one thing just dawned on me. I was so glad King Kenny and Taggart were at the match to see that 7-0 thrashing.
Can you explain this one a bit to me? I have seen the grand total of 2 MU matches this season, so I am wondering, given they are 15-4-6, what that statement is based on?
For half of our match, the game was extremely tight, and even after MU lost their heads, we still only had 8 shots on goal for the match, even if our conversion was insane. If you are truly basing that statement on our game, then would that also not make our 5-2 RM scoreline a fair reflection of Kloppâs tactical ability?
Of course I am happy to be educated here on how his man marking tactics has come into question, but I sure hope itâs not based purely on 45 mins of our game where we had the in-match momentum!
4 shots on target. 
Insanely easy to beat is perhaps an overstatement, but the defensive scheme is fairly simple. Look at their results within that 15-4-6. They have flattened many of the midtable sides, but their record against the top 3rd is not as compelling - and looks good thanks to some late goals that shifted a result. Essentially, when their defence is working, it is working, but when it starts to break down it gives up a lot of shots. Their midfield ball pressure is really erratic.
You talking about them or us?