Liverpool 2 Manchester United 0
October 25, 2009 4 Comments
Thank god for that.
I’ve complained that I’ve been nervous before every game this season, so I don’t really need to tell you how I was feeling before this one. Last night, I had a dream in which Rafa had picked a completely new starting 11 from the reserves, and knowing Mr Benitez, there was always a remote chance that this might happen. Luckily it didn’t, and the return of Torres and Johnson made up slightly for the loss of Gerrard.
I’m not going to be able to give you a blow-by-blow account of the game, not because I didn’t watch it, but because I was far too nervous. Suffice to say, it was all as frantic as you would imagine. The first half ended goalless and fairly evenly, with Liverpool possibly having the better chances. The Manchester United players remonstrated with the referee on the stroke of half time as they felt that some decisions hadn’t gone their way. No further comment necessary.
Things really heated up in the second half and the breakthrough for Liverpool came on 64 minutes; an exquisite through ball from Yossi Benayoun was threaded to Torres who smashed it home. From that point on, I felt totally sick with nerves.
United managed to create some pressure towards the end of the match and Jamie Carragher could have been sent off for a professional foul on Michael Owen. It wasn’t entirely clear cut as Owen was headed away from goal and there were other players present, but you wouldn’t have been shocked if he has received a red card instead of yellow. A few minutes later, Vidic received a second yellow card for bringing down a quickly breaking Kuyt, and, incredibly, it was the third league game in a row against Liverpool in which he’s been dismissed. Mascherano also saw red after a second booking for a sliding tackle on Van Der Sar. The game was settled five and a half minutes in to injury time when Kuyt and Lucas broke and slid Ngog in for a good goal.
I feel like I’ve just gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson, so I’m not going to make any in depth judgements about what this result meant. The main thing, other than the result, was that the team put in a performance and every man played his part.
About sherby57
Had Liverpool been anywhere near their best they’d have won that by four or five goals. United were absolutely atrocious – that team today wasn’t even close to being worthy of being called champions.
Sir Alex needs to take a long hard look at where he wants his team to go. Scholes is past it, Nani is a waste of space, Valencia simply cannot cut it playing for a big team, Ferdinand is an error-prone mess, Carrick is useless, and Berbatov is a lazy git.
What a waste of an afternoon!
I find it genuinely difficult to assess the opposition in tense games because my entire focus is on willing Liverpool on. United certainly weren’t at their best today, but the result was never inevitable and so they weren’t perhaps that bad.
They’ve also not been on top form all season really and it’s a testament to their winning mentality that they’re still where they are in the league. It’s interesting that Ferguson didn’t go out and spend big in the summer to bolster some of the positions that you’ve mentioned. I speculated, back before the season began, that perhaps he wanted to prove that he could win the league without spending big (http://poursomegravyonme.co.uk/2009/08/14/seasons-greeting/). There was an element of conspiracy theory to the idea, but I think there may be a grain if truth to it.
I wouldn’t be too down-hearted, you have won the league three years on the bounce.
It was nice to see Liverpool win a game of football and play with passion and determination. I think Scholes, Carrick, Nani, Ferdinand and Valencia would all walk into the Liverpool team…have a word with Alex, maybe Liverpool can take them off your hands in January! I am not a fan of Ngog, but it was a good finish from the young lad, at the Kop end aswell.
Ngog may not have set the world alight, but he has managed to tuck a few goals away. It’s incredible how many strikers in the Premier League seem incapavble of scoring.