And Then She Flung Me the Truth

Wasn't looking forward to the papers this morning, for obvious reasons. They're in overdrive this morning. Every paper's website seems to have 3,4 or 5 articles proclaiming the brilliance of Liverpool and so forgive me if this round up ignores the odd paper's (or indeed pretty much all of the) reports, I gave up reading them half way through, unable to continue reading the same rubbish over and over again.
There's this on The Guardian's blog about Wayne Rooney's "hate" comment where Paul Wilson suggests that we are reaching a stage where we "only ever hear from footballers who have been media-trained into the overrated art of speaking on television without actually saying anything." Which is something I agree with, and yet, after reading article after article by sports journalists which all say exactly the same thing isn't it a case of the pot calling the kettle black? It always comes as something of a surprise when I read a good football report, something that makes you think or tells you something about the game to change your mind, or something that evokes the passion of the game. It is exactly the same type of thing as when a manager or player says something different from the usual cliches.
So to the game.
Sir Alex is ridiculed in the papers this morning for saying, "I thought we were the better team".
The Mirror:

if Ferguson truly believed his post-battering claim that United were the better team, perhaps the men in white coats should call at Carrington rather than Melwood.

The Times:

Ferguson’s claim that United were the better team was ridiculously biased, even by the old grouse’s notoriously one-eyed standards. It was too risible for Benitez to bother to gainsay.

Etc.. And The Telegraph claim:

United weren't just beaten here. They were outsmarted, outmuscled, outpaced

I'm not so biased that I'm going to sit here and claim we were good, we weren't, we had a shocking day. But I think we should view Sir Alex's comments in a slightly different way; he wasn't claiming we were good, he claimed we were "better", which is to say, that while we may have been rubbish on the day, so were Liverpool. They didn't outplay us, nothing of the sort, despite what every paper seems to claim. Our defence had an off day, our passing was off, and Liverpool capitalised by hoofing balls forward, taking advantage of our uncharacteristic defending. They didn't play great football. Vidic should just have headed that first ball clear, so why the huge praise for Torres, he is a striker, and presented with such an opportunity he really should score. It's his job.
Look at the stats and you'll find that Sir Alex's claim isn't exactly wrong. I take these from The Guardian's report.

Goal Attempts Man Utd 16 Liverpool 10
On Target Man Utd 10 Liverpool 7
Corners Man Utd 10 Liverpool 3

And these from Sky Sports.

Possession Man Utd 55% Liverpool 45%
Passing success Man Utd 80.3% Liverpool 74.2%
Territorial Advantage Man Utd 55.6% Liverpool 44.4%

Are these the stats of a team who were outplayed? Or are they the stats of a team that was, in at least some/most senses of the word, better? We can bring it down to the individual level as well. (These stats from The Telegraph) The best four passers on the pitch, by pass success rates, were all on our team (Vidic, Ferdinand, Anderson, Tevez). The "amazing" Steven Gerrard, pass success? 73% The "woeful" Michael Carrick, pass success 73%. Where's the difference? The difference being that Michael Carrick normally scores high 80's and 90's. We lost because we weren't where we usually are, not because of an amazing Liverpool performance.
Of course the victors write history, but, instead of the usual cliches where if a team scores 4 they must have been amazing and damn the stats, wouldn't it have been nice for someone to stand up and put this case? If footballers are to be slated for banality shouldn't those doing the slating (who are actually paid to write) try a little harder to be interesting themselves?
I'll leave the final word to Sir Bobby Robson, who sums it up nicely:

when May comes around, I think this 4-1 scoreline will be a blip in the history books.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be upset by it, of course, and will get among his players to ensure that any kind of complacency has not set in.

But I do not think it will alter the destination of where the league title is going. United simply have too much class and experience to allow one bad day at the office to run into several weeks of poor form.