United still suffering Liverpool hangover

WHERE has it all gone wrong for Manchester United?

Considering that they lead the Premier League, are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the FA Cup and already have the Carling Cup and that other slightly less prestigious gong, the World Club Championship, in the bag this season, the question might seem to have inescapable echoes of that hoary old yarn about a similarly agonised query being posed by the hotel room service guy who discovers George Best in bed with Miss World, swigging champagne and scattering banknotes all over the duvet.

But then Manchester United, like their greatest player, are judged by different, more exacting standards — essentially the ones they have set for themselves.