The Warm-Up: There can be only one, and Ole's crisis talks
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Updated 26/04/2019 at 07:27 GMT
Liverpool face Huddersfield tonight as the title race enters the final stretch - while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had an unwelcome visitor at Carrington.
urgen Klopp manager of Liverpool during a training session at Melwood Training Ground
Image credit: Getty Images
FRIDAY’S BIG HEADLINES
1. There can only be one
Existential questions have been whirling round The Warm-Up’s restless mind all week. What does it all really mean? Is death really the end or is there some kind of cosmic afterlife to which the soul travels? Can it really be considered a great title race if both clubs involved just keep winning all their matches?
As of Friday morning, both Liverpool and Manchester City have three games remaining, with City leading by a solitary point. On Friday night, Liverpool open the weekend’s action against Huddersfield at Anfield and a win would take them onto 91 points - a tally which has never failed to deliver the title in the history of English football. And, let's be honest, a win tonight is basically nailed on.
Liverpool have won six in a row stretching back to March 3; for City the run extends to 11, since their defeat to Newcastle on January 29. This is by any estimation the highest quality title race we have ever witnessed. If both clubs do win their remaining three matches then they will have the second and third highest points tallies in English top flight history - being beaten only by City’s 100-point haul last year. The standards are obscenely high.
And yet... the league season is often described as being ‘a marathon, not a sprint’, but The Warm-Up prefers to think of it more like a steeplechase race. Sometimes you just want to see someone fall face down in a big puddle of water. And great title races are unquestionably given added texture by drama: Keegan’s rant, Gerrard’s slip, United’s players celebrating before Aguero’s goal, Liverpool losing 2-0 at Anfield to Arsenal on the final day in 1989.
A procession of bloodless victories isn’t what we want, really. City’s midweek win over United was another procedural milestone and even Jurgen Klopp admitted he was never in any doubt as to the final score.
If anybody really thought United are capable of hurting City... City are just too good for that. It is not a lie. I watched the game in front of the television and I was not a little bit nervous. I was not like: ‘Oh, my God, why did he do this … Lingard?’
Mind you, where Pogba, Rashford and Lingard failed, Klopp optimistically thinks Hendrick, Barnes and Wood can succeed, when City travel to Burnley on Sunday...
“Is Burnley a place I would love to have on the schedule for us now? No, honestly not. It is not a place where you think: ‘Oh nice, we are going to Burnley. Easy points.’ It is a tough place to go and they are in a good momentum, and they are used to that style of play. We don’t have to really think about it. We just have to be focused.
“There are so many examples in life of what could happen if you give up too early, of what it means, of people who would not have survived if they’d given up, that I don’t have to use these examples. You know these examples. It is over when it’s over and not before, and for us it is not over. We just do what we have to do as well as we can do it. Then we will see.”
Klopp didn’t sign off before gifting the headline writers with a nice little line. Saying the title race “is like Highlander. Only one of us will be there at the end”.
Let’s just hope there’s more drama than a bunch of Scottish wizards prancing about in the woods outside Aberdeen. Or whatever. The Warm-Up hasn’t seen Highlander.
Ole’s inquest
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Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer claimed Manchester City's fouls are often committed high up the pitch
Image credit: PA Sport
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been setting all kinds of records at Manchester United this season: best start by any Premier League manager in history; worst run of results in 57 years; most fawning allusions to Sir Alex Ferguson, sorry, ‘the boss’. Now there must be another record on the cards after Solskjær was hauled in for “crisis talks” just seven games after he was appointed as permanent boss at the end of March.
According to the Mail, a desperate run of seven defeats in nine matches convinced executive vice-chairman and professional cock-up merchant Ed Woodward to visit Carrington yesterday. As the Mail reports:
Woodward called the lunchtime meeting at Carrington to discuss United's deepening problems after a seventh defeat in nine games in the derby against Manchester City left Solskjaer's side in danger of missing out on the top four.
Intriguingly, there also appears to be a mole hunt on - always the sign of a highly-functioning professional outfit. “United are alarmed that their line-up to face City — and particularly Solskjaer's decision to recall Matteo Darmian in a back-five — was leaked well before kick-off at Old Trafford, even though it was meant to be a secret.”
All this does is highlight the utter ludicrousness of the decision to give Solskjær the job permanently when United did: after two consecutive defeats, and with no requirement whatsoever to show their hand so early. And to think, they could be trying and failing to convince Mauricio Pochettino to leave Tottenham right this second.
Next up for United: the visit of top-four rivals Chelsea on Sunday.
Chelsea take Hazard snub well
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Eden Hazard came off in the second half after being on the receiving end of a number of heavy challenges
Image credit: PA Sport
The PFA Team of the Year was announced yesterday with a largely predictable line-up nevertheless attracting a wonderfully salty response from Chelsea over the decision to snub Eden Hazard.
The Chelsea propaganda machine was cranked up to 11 soon after the team was published, when a story appeared on their official website entitled: “INFLUENTIAL EDEN HAZARD NOT IN TEAM OF THE YEAR DESPITE OUTSTANDING STATS.”
It continues:
Eden Hazard did make the six-man shortlist for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award which was announced at the weekend, yet he has not been named in the PFA Premier League Team of Year for 2018/19 which was unveiled this morning. Our no.10 is enjoying an outstanding season full of eye-catching moments and his non-selection is being widely described as a surprise omission. Certainly his headline statistics from the current season cannot have counted against him when the votes were cast.
Chelsea then go on to cite statistics which show Hazard has scored fewer goals than all three of the players named in attack in the PFA TOTY: Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Sadio Mane. Hazard does, admittedly, have more assists, but then he isn’t playing for a club engaged in the most exceptional title battle ever. He does however play for the club with the most exceptional levels of pettiness.
IN OTHER NEWS
Raheem Sterling was last night given the Integrity and Impact Award at the Sport Industry Awards in London. Sterling was recognised for his contribution to the fight against racism in football and was given his award by England manager Gareth Southgate. He also had something to say about the title race...
IN THE CHANNELS
Real Madrid drew 0-0 with Getafe last night in a pretty unremarkable affair, save for this lovely bit of play from youngster Brahim Diaz.
RETRO CORNER
Roy Keane has been making a few headlines this week for his punditry. Here's some of his 'finest' moments as a player.
COMING UP
It's Liverpool 3-0 Huddersfield in the Premier League tonight - while if you want something a bit less predictable, the Snooker World Championship is live on Eurosport today!
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