OF the forest’s worth of sticks with which you could beat Liverpool, the most splintered one is that they have just stopped working.

When Brighton showed them no love on Valentine’s night, TNT Sports revealed the statistic that Arne Slot’s team had been outrun in 26 of their previous 30 Premier League fixtures.

Joe Soap’s mind will never accept the nuances of that debate.

The public do not want to hear that the 2021/22 team that amassed 92 points and took Man City to the final day of a thrilling season were also outrun in 26 of their 38 games.

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“You cannot simultaneously hold that “being outrun” proves a lack of fight now and meant nothing in a nearly historic season,” wrote journalist Anton Seitz on Tribuna.

Reality is not all-powerful. It is beholden to the optics of any situation.

If you’re a Tyrone football supporter reading this, there is every chance you are utterly despondent ahead of this weekend’s trip to Armagh.

The fear among Tyrone people is that they are in line to receive a reversal of the shoeing that they dished out in Croke Park in an All-Ireland quarter-final nine years ago.

Armagh’s confidence going into the game is intrinsic.

It is built on what they are doing.

They will not say it out loud but they know their performances were better than their results and last-gasp avoidance of relegation reflected.

Armagh are scoring more often than any team in Ireland. They are creating goal chances. They are playing well.

Tyrone are not doing any of those things.

Their confidence would be better described as extrinsic.

They go to Armagh with the ability to win but reliant on things that aren’t entirely within their........

© The Irish News