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That still wouldn't make a difference. The narrative would still be why couldn't they break through with all their expensive talent and not that Lyon played great defense.

 

City have struggled all year against teams that were not afraid of them. Norwich City are clearly a grossly inferior side to every side in the PL not just City but they beat City. I don't think City believed in themselves and Lyon did.

 

And as expected more of the same bullshit today. Here are headlines from four different sites:

Man United shortcomings laid bare in UEL exit

United falls in Europa League semis

Sevilla 2 Man Utd 1: Dodgy defending costs wasteful Red Devils as they crash out of Europa League

Wan-Bissaka sleeps as Man Utd crumble again


Gloss over the club who are five time champions in this very competition and make it all about what Man United did wrong. Apparently the team they faced deserve no credit. They didn't win, the bigger club simply imploded.

 

Depends. Those headlines were totally appropriate when Liverpool went out to Atletico. 2-0 up, losing 3-2, to a team that NEVER won it, and went out to.......LEIPZIG in their next game>?>>

Nobody in the UK is really saying that it was all Uniteds fault per se. They give credit to individuals in the Sevilla team.

Look at the Spanish papers and they are probably saying the converse for their sides.

Does anybody think its wrong for the Spanish papers to regard what happened to Barcelona as anything other than an implosion? Pique offering to leave the club? Bampots like Stutterin Chris Sutton coming on the airwaves saying "Barcelona's manager is now out of a job".......before the game was even finished.

Manchester United had the lead and then some Harry £80m Maguire "No Look" Defending and Victor "Leave it to somebody else" Lindeloff defending either side of rafts of United attacks that did everything bar score.....Bono the keeper was on Fifa Maximum Setting........

There WAS a strong smell of implosion about what happened to United. It just doesn't tell the full story.

 

Losing to the third best side in spain is hardly cause for a fitbaw accident inquiry either, even for a side as good as liverpool. Just one of those: you're the slightly better side, 7 times out of 10 you would have won, this time you didnt. Im not sure United can even claim that vs Seville.

 

Remember when Liverpool BLEW a 3-0 lead versus Sevilla to draw 3-3 and blew a 3-1 lead vs Salzburg and eventually won 4-3....those were implosions no matter how good those sides were. We can't say that a 3-3 draw to Crystal Palace away from home is a "Good result" when you are 3-0 up with 10 minutes to go, no matter HOW FEW teams won there that season.

Whisky is correct to an extent- the true extent of United Malaise should be that a team that has barely won a game but for penalties and good fortune was finally found out by another team with a blend of talent and resilience above what United have faced for the vast majority of their EL campaign.

In fact, that United played as well as they did but for 2 awful defensive lapses {I mean, check Maguire out for the equalizer, he literally has NO IDEA what its all about....£80m} .........should probably be the correct basis of the article.

But United had it, and blew it, nonetheless.

"Brave United falter at the death" would be probably too generous to Sevilla.

"Brave Sevilla undo Superstars United"........too generous to United.

"Experienced Sevilla prove youth and spending no match for experience at top level as defensive errors ruthlessly punished by old masters" is probably the fairest headline.

 

Astana, Bruge, Lask, Copenhagen.................just not the sort of teams that add up to dried shit in the general scheme of things.

 

How about "Sevilla eliminates Manchester United from Europa League competition"

Narratives are annoying enough, they don't have to start with it right in the headline.

And of course the "dodgy defending". I'm not claiming it wasn't but what if the exact circumstances happened in reverse? Would the headline be "Defensive errors allow lucky United to advance" or "Horrible mistake by Jesus Navas gifts match to Manchester"

 

Bit prosaic that.

Plot Twist: EVERY football fan already knows the result, they're just gravitating to their favoured news source so they can wallow in the glory or the schadenfreude .

The news sources, which are not sources, but reflectors/mirrors, already know this and in fact themselves tailor "reporting" based on what the fans already are feeling/saying.

They mine fan-sites and fan-zones, invite comment and ripsotes and then shoehorn those into a critical narrative in keeping with their own general sentiments and sympathies.

There's no actual writing or journalism involved here. It's a media-driven narrative based on their own prior harvesting of sentiment from the actual source, which is the TV broadcast and the fans reaction to same.

 

I used to see alot of this in the fag-end of the Rafa era.

"Benitez Bemoans" etc.

The press knew the Pool fans were despondent, that Benitez was generally disliked on the public scene and that the rest of them were ravenous for the blood of a guy who had dared to challenged the ossified status of quo of King Whiskey Nose and Prince Maureen.

So they cut their clothe accordingly.

It's not journalism. It's not writing. It's not literature.

It's jesters to the Court doing their thing before being dismissed and reappearing after the next go around.

They lick their finger, hold it in the air, and get typing.

 

Yeah it's not very imaginative , but there is plenty of room to place opinions in the accompanying article. The clickbait isn't necessary for something people are going to read anyway.

People enjoy their schadenfreude on various message boards all over the web. I think these types of articles usually aren't designed for those purposes. Even if it's littered with criticisms the conclusions they always try to put forth is the smaller club didn't win, the bigger club lost.

Then they create a bunch more articles about everything that needs to change. The owner needs to go, sack the manager, purchase a new left/right/center back. Fire the water boy and the guy maintaining the club's web site. Because you lost one match to a club that has a smaller payroll it means your entire organization from top to bottom requires a complete overhaul.

 

Now this I am in total agreement with. It's the fissiparous nature of reportage. It just veers off into areas that are totally unconnected or unrelated or had no bearing on the circumstances on the nigh tin question.

Then there's the gravelly faux-solemnity with which these interjections are delivered by guys wearing shirts with no ties, the very epitome of some sort of jaded campus-cool hipster whose world-weary "I've seen it all before, trust me" delivery is in fact nothing more than the contrived soliloquy of a jaded hack who can't get up for yet another session of mid-week studio spoofery. But it's passed off as gravitas and incision and considered, weighty analysis. It's not. It's shite.

I remember the Haye vs Wlad fight and the British coverage seemed to place this enormous emphasis on how it had been RAINING in Hamburg that night. Like it was some sort of bombing raid over Hamburg in 1944 that had gone disastrously wrong and boffins were scrambling for excuses down at Bomber Control. "It was raining. Visibility was poor. We got separated from our fighter escort".

"It was raining. A long walk to the ring and a wait meant my body-engine was starting to give out just as battle commenced. In the dim light I could barely make out my target. This is Big Eagle 6, I am going down, 10-4"

What?

Suddenly the "Sodden", "Rain-Soaked" , "Deluged" venue had crept into the reckoning during the post-mortem of what had gone wrong.


Hayes ringwalk, his toe, the rain, people wearing plastic bags, made to wait, etc.

Haye did his routine of trying to get something from nothing. Wlad did his routine of getting a lot from very little..... W12 , Thank you, Good night. End of story.

Same with the football.

"Jurgen Klopp must try to figure out what has gone wrong after defeat to Atletico left his side with 1 win from 5, or 34 wins from 39, depending on how you look at it".

"Liverpool slump to 5th defeat in 4 years. Surely now the purse strings must be loosened, for BBC Sports I am John Roan from a RAIN SOAKED Anfield".

 

Precisely. If this was representatives from the losing club it only makes sense to look at mistakes made, what areas they can improve on in the future and so on. It's not though. It's supposed "journalists" telling the story from only one side.

What if that player converted his chance? What if that goalkeeper didn't make that great save? What if the ref gave a penalty? What if some guy was subbed on earlier? It could have been a totally different game!!!

Endless scenarios where things could have gone differently (i.e. if the bigger club didn't lose)

When the bigger club wins all these scenarios aren't given any weight if they're even brought up. It just is what it is. All you really need to know is the deserved club won regardless of how it played out. Now on to the next match.

 

Couldn't agree more. One of my big regrets in life is not having had any faith in my own sense of humour and righteousness when I was younger. None of these clowns minting it on the scene are actually any good at their work or have any sense of humour with it. It's all slanted subjective dirge dished up as incisive wit. If anything, it's a sort of paralysis by analysis. Shit happens. Teams get beat. Under Shankly, Liverpool had a "Great Era"- won the league 3 times in 15 fucking years That's a lot of losing!! How did they cope!!!! How did they survive??? Not only did they survive, but the era is regarded as HALCYON whereas in fact Liverpools past 15 years have probably been more successful than 1960-1975 but are instead remembered as riven and horrific...

 

Another extremely irritating thing i regularly see these media outlets do is take great liberties in re-interpreting people's words in order to generate dishonest clickbait headlines.

Player X is asked about his about his status at Club Y. They say "I'm very happy here, we have a great manager and the fan support is tremendous."

They then ask if player X can see themselves playing for another side in the future. They answer "As i said i'm very happy here and the only thing i'm concentrating on is winning trophies and helping my team mates. In life anything can happen, i can't predict what will happen years from now but i hope i remain here".


The headline - "Player X: His future at Club Y is uncertain"

 

We had a case like that with a player called Steven Ireland who was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons and so the press kept on at him about his move away from Man City.

So he said a few words about it and some sympathetic pundits were like "He shouldn't talk to the press".

Then one of them pointed out.........."If he doesn't say anything, the headline will be "Steven Ireland silent on move away from Man City" ".

These cunts will, and do, try anything.

 

Yep.

A player is rumored to want a move away but signs a new contract.

"Player and club just angling for a larger transfer fee"

 

These clowns are always right. They pick 5 teams to be relegated. Then when ONE of them goes down, it's "I said it right from the beginning of the Season".

 

This is the easiest game ive seen sellik play for years & years including cup games vs amateur sides. Very relaxing.

 

Made Up Club From France 3 : 0 Made Up Club From Germany.

 

That´s modern football, son.



Skill:

 

Man You Reject.

And still this shower of merc fucks will win the lot having played fucking Atalanta and Made Up Soft Drink in TWO games for their "Quarter" and "Semi Final" respectively.

Compare that to the real shit.

Liverpool blowing away City and Roma and then Bayern/Barcelona the following year over 8 games.

Fuck right off Covid, fuck right off.

 

Who cares about Di Maria?

The assist was the thing.

 

Tuchel: "hey, Jurgen. How about Neymar for Mo, Ox & Hendo"?

Kloppa Castle: "in ein heartbeat, youth"

 

Yeah. England would smash Brazil right now and you know it. Brazil actually suck and Neymar sucks dicks in hell.

 

Molde 5 KuPS Kuopio 0

 

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