in fifth place

[navi tasan]

1) Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Van Gaal was appointed United manager last summer, and United currently sit five points clear of Liverpool in fifth place.

SOURCE: https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/premier-league-hristo-stoichkov-louis-van-gaal-scum-100302302--sow.html

The question is: who is in fifth place? United (Manchester United) or Liverpool?

I think the sentence is telling us that Manchester is in fifth place.

The fact of the matter is that Liverpool is in fifth place.

Would a comma before 'in fifth place' change anything?

2) Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Van Gaal was appointed United manager last summer, and United currently sit five points clear of Liverpool, in fifth place.

Gratefully,
Navi. .

 

[Rover_KE]

The comma makes it sound like Man U are in fifth place.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much Rover_KE,

But doesn't the version without comma also sound like Man U are fifth?

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Raymott]

Yes. Although the sentence without the comma is ambiguous, I'd tend to think that United is in fifth place in both sentences.
You want "United currently sit in fifth place, five points clear of Liverpool."

 

[SoothingDave]

It sounds like Man U is in 5th place to me either way as well. Is it saying they are 5 points ahead of Liverpool?

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes, Manchester United are currently in fifth place in the league table. They have five points more than Liverpool. I assume Liverpool are currently in sixth place but it is just possible that Liverpool are even further down the table and the writer was simply providing the points difference between those two teams.

 

[Tdol]

In fact, Liverpool are fifth and Man U are fourth: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/tables

It's a clumsy sentence- I would interpret it as meaning that Man U are 5th.

 

[SoothingDave]

If it had said "sit 5 points clear of fifth-place Liverpool" it would have been clear.