Some defeats hurt more than all

It is never pleasant watching the football team you happen to support get stuffed by the opposition.

However, life goes on and you get over it. Painful though it might be, fans have to accept defeats now and again. That’s all part of the game.

A real walloping is another matter altogether, however. It’s not the loss, fans can handle that, but the humiliation of being thrashed. It is all the more distressing for a big club unused to such treatment.

Which brings us to the extraordinary events at Anfield last Sunday when Manchester United suffered a second-half meltdown against Liverpool resulting in a 7-0 loss. It was United’s biggest defeat since a similar scoreline against Wolves 91 years ago.

Making matters worse, the thrashing came at the hand of their historic rivals. Most people accept Juergen Klopp’s verdict that it was a “freak result,” but for United fans…