Manchester United vs Liverpool/Sunday 21st March/KO 13:30 (Mod note: Post #1 & #770)

As a liverpool fan, its very embarrassing all this talk of hidden agendas regarding ref decisions etc....... WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

You cant really fault the team today, Gerrard was exceptionally poor, Johnson looked very sluggish, Masch and Lucas tried to keep it tight. It really is our level now, the better side most certainly won and the sad thing is United were in second gear themselves. We are not most certainly below par, scrapping for 4th is our place.

You can say what you want about players having to do the business on the pitch but there is alot to be said for the system a manager sets out for the way his players play.
United have lost alot of big players down the years, Cantona, Keane, Ronaldo are just a few but my god as much as I hate Ferguson, he still manages to get his players up to a level to play the same system to a certain extent.

I was saying this earlier, imagine Ji Sung Park or Nani in the liverpool side? They'd more than likely be muck. Wayne Rooney would certainly not be the player he is now under Rafa id put my house on it.
Before the game looking at their midfield there was not one player in it that would improve us in the system we play. Valencia, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Park. These are not top top players, so there is alot to be said for a manager making a team better than the sum of its parts.

This sympathy for Rafa not having money is a load of rubbish aswell. 18m on a right full, lets say 10m on a midfielder he doesnt use (aquilani), 10m on Kuyt, 11.5m on Ryan Babel, 20m on Robbie Keane.
To earn the right to spend big money you need to prove you get the best out of what you buy. Its pretty simple. And he has certainly not done that.

Time upon time today we got the ball, passed it sideways, showed a distinct lack of creativity on the ball as has become a feature of this managers tactics. We seem to slow the game down when in possession giving opposition loads of time to get their shape back and prevent us from breaking them down.

I feel sorry for Torres to be honest, as our game plan pretty much week in week out is keep it tight, work hard and pump long balls onto his head or in behind for him to work a bit of magic. Now to say that Rafa has developed him as a player is a bit off aswell, imagine him in the United or Arsenal team?? He'd look twice the player. He is playing far below his level at liverpool.

As i said earlier, theres nowt knee jerk about this reaction. We were beaten straight up by the better side, not necessarily by a team of world class players. Rather a team that plays to a system that maximises its strengths. A team with mental strength and good basic abilities to play the ball on the ground.