TERRACE TALK: Man United - The sweetest pleasure after smash ‘n’ grab

The success of the Fifty Shades series revealed a hitherto under-appreciated public appetite for sado-masochism, which may in turn partly explain football’s popularity as a spectator sport. 

When you step back from the week-to-week maelstrom and examine it, we fans do spend a tremendous amount of time either seeking to inflict pain on others, or revelling in our own suffering, don’t we? And marvellously, United fans got a bit of both in the Red Room of Anfield yesterday.

We can certainly admit, now that it’s safely over, that many of us were waiting for kick-off weighed down by apocalyptic thoughts. The morning press had done its bit too, piling in with heaps of Van Gaal execution speculation, with The Times, The Sun and Sunday People especially prominent in promoting Mourinho and Giggs. Seeing Fellaini on the team sheet removed many remaining traces of optimism. It really did feel like High Noon, albeit with Louis cutting a rather less simpatico figure than Gary Cooper.