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Sport

26th Dec 2015

Some Man United fans actually want their team to lose to Stoke City – here’s why

Nooruddean Choudry

It’s opposite day.

For most fans, the hope that their own team actually loses a game of football is an alien concept. It simply does not compute. But it’s not really an impossible scenario.

For instance, there have been numerous cases in the final few games of a season when a team essentially has nothing to play for – but their results could have an adverse effect on a fierce rival.

But bang in the middle of a season, when your team is nine points off the top of the league, and only being edged out of the top four via the metric of goal difference, it is very odd indeed.

Alas, that was exactly the case for a surprising number of Man United fans ahead of their away game with Stoke City. The logic is that it would be a necessary hit for the greater good.

These fans are so desperate for Louis van Gaal to be removed as the manager of their club, that they want him to face failure in a make-or-break game that could ultimately seal his fate.

A completely reasonable point of view, or spiteful nose-cutting to the extreme? Here are just a few expressing this unusual sentiment…

https://twitter.com/MarcoMorgan1/status/680708381322178561

https://twitter.com/SameOldAnt/status/680705275561676800