Manchester United’s recent defeat to Liverpool is already the story of the season, as the Red Devils were battered 7–0 at Anfield, completely against expectations and run of form.
Erik Ten Hag’s side were by far the favorite to take all 3 points, but in the end, it was Jurgen Klopp’s men who pulled off an incredible victory.
Liverpool established a foothold early on in the game, before earning an advantage through Cody Gakpo near the end of the first half.
During the second 45, the Reds ran riot and scored 6 times to complete a humiliation for the ages.
Full-time scenes saw the United men appear dejected, and forward Marcus Rashford even voiced his disappointment through an apologetic letter he shared on Twitter.
The United talisman failed to add to his impressive goal-scoring haul at Anfield, and in his tweet, he called upon the need for staying together and trusting the process.
Unknowingly, the 25-year-old also became the subject of a bizarre piece from the news publication Daily Mail.
The article centres around Rashford’s trip to a jewellery store in Cheshire just a few days after the game at Liverpool.
It states that the forward donned casual wear and visited Prestons, a store specializing in luxury watches. He then hopped back in his McLaren 765LT, as specified in the article, and wheeled away.
That just about sums up the subject matter, and in case you’re wondering, what was the point?
Well, there really wasn’t one.
Fluff pieces such as these are the very description of scraping the bottom of the barrel, just scrounging up bits of irrelevant information in hopes of earning some clicks.
The title even mentioned the price of the car, which was £280k, solely to sensationalize the whole affair and generate intrigue.
Of course, these are standard media practices that have come to be accepted, but the manner in which the article had been framed could lead to Rashford being perceived negatively.
Also important to point out, is the fact that a whole story was spawned from the forward simply living his life and driving his own car, things that are far from newsworthy on their own.
Fans on Twitter felt the same way, as they pointed out the sheer irrelevance of the article, and wondered why pieces such as these continue to exist.
People will say “Don’t share it, you’re playing into their hands!” but the more people who call this sort of bollocks out, the more likely the next generation are to avoid this barrel-scraping nonsense as a matter of principle. pic.twitter.com/lPTRdgZ2eD
The situation also points to the need of respecting a Footballer’s personal life and privacy.
Fans diminishing a player’s personal life is a common occurrence in the game, if a Footballer is pictured at a restaurant following a defeat they’re prone to attract criticism from users online.
Needless to say, this is hardly fair.
Articles such as the one in discussion certainly don’t help either, and we hope the backlash will lead to some positive change.
