Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Man Utd will make Liverpool feel better about losing Premier League title to Man City
LIVERPOOL will only have to look at Manchester United to make themselves feel better about losing the Premier League title to Manchester City.
There’s no doubt that knowing they have missed out on the title by just a single point will hurt Jurgen Klopp and his players.
To reach 97 points and still not win the title is a hammer blow, particularly after a gruelling nine months where they have quite literally given everything.
Whatever happened at Anfield on Sunday, the players knew they always had the Champions League final to fall back on against Tottenham on June 1.
But Klopp will also take consolation when he checks the Premier League scores later and sees Manchester United lost 2-0 at home to Cardiff.
While that result is utterly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, he will feel privileged with what he’s got on his hands in comparison to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
When he took the Liverpool job back in October 2015 he knew it would take time so assemble a team capable of challenging for trophies.
Now that’s what he’s got and even though his side may have fallen short here, they know this won’t be their last shot at glory.
In the red half of Manchester, Solskjaer has a huge job to turn things around after an initially brilliant start to life at Old Trafford as boss.
But losing to already relegated Cardiff is simply unacceptable for a club of their stature.
The final game of the season was a free hit for them knowing they couldn’t qualify for the Champions League.
It should have been a match where they gave the fans a performance that would have at least given them a reason to forget about their recent struggles.
Instead they left Old Trafford this afternoon concerned about the future of their club and what the future holds for Solskjaer.
United will have 31 points of quality to make up on Liverpool next season, and 32 to make up on Manchester City.
It’s not something that will happen overnight and as seen with Klopp, it often takes patience and a number of transfer windows to get things right.
Liverpool won’t be looking over their shoulder next season, they will be breathing down the neck of City looking to find a way to make up that minor fraction and detail that saw them rightfully crowned champions.