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Former Liverpool star John Aldridge does not believe Manchester United deserved to finish above Liverpool
Former Liverpool player John Aldridge thinks Manchester United were lucky to finish above Liverpool in the Premier League table.
Following the results on Sunday, United managed to finish eight points and two places above their arch-rivals in the table.
Erik ten Hag’s team also secured Champions League football for next season, while Liverpool have to make do by competing in the Europa League.
Although it wasn’t United’s fault that Jurgen Klopp’s men were poor for the most part of the season, here’s what Aldridge said regarding the luck involved in the final position of the two teams (h/t column on Independent.ie, via Metro):
“Manchester United got lucky on a few fronts this season as they stumbled over the finishing line in the race for a top four finish. The break helped United manager Erik ten Hag as Cristiano Ronaldo was pushed out of the club just before that World Cup and if the season was ongoing, it would have been a huge story.
“By the time the Premier League restarted again, Ronaldo was old news and United could get on with the season without that circus affecting them.”
What Aldridge is trying to convey here is making no sense. Liverpool started the season badly and had the chance to regroup during the World Cup break. But, they did not, while United got over the Cristiano Ronaldo situation and played consistently well.
Credit must be given to ten Hag for handling all the critical situations with aplomb and setting the team to compete in every game regardless of the result.
Moreover, not many people can question the legitimacy of where teams finish in the league table because the positions are decided after 38 games each. That amount of games is enough to decipher whether a team is deserving of finishing in the higher spots or not.
Coming back to how bad Liverpool were, it is not United’s mistake. When the roles were reversed in the past few seasons, nobody said that Liverpool got lucky because United have been bad, isn’t it?
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It would be good for Klopp and all these ex-players to understand the Red Devils have had one over them this season. If they want to compete, they can come back after the summer.
