Man Utd Vs Liverpool

Guy:Incognito

ferdinand is eating am energy bar. thats a new one

mike65

Damn! Oh well still a game in hand.

Whens Kirkland back?

Mike.

Ronan|Raven

Kirkland is back now if he is needed. in fairness little Dudek could do. No one picked Silvestre up both times and gave him relatively easy but very well taken headers. I hate it when I predict things correctly or at least when I dont have money on it!

If Liverpool had played the way they did in the second half they would have perhaps got a result but with the chances UTD missed in the first half a draw would have been perhaps unfiar on them (but who cares eh! )

I hope they test that "energy" bar he ate energy my ass it was full of Cocaine! Someone ring the sun to collect incriminating made up evicence.

Oh and it wasnt a corner for UTD'S second goal

*edit* Gerrard hopefully isnt to badly injured? Anyone ehar a report of how he is or what is wrong with him as the channel I was watching the game on is in spanish and I have just about figured out with my Collins "spanish to english" dictionary that dos is two!

The Muppet

Great Result for United Liverpool were better second half but over the 90 minutes united deserved their win. Thats the best they have played this season but there were still some shaky moments in the second half so there is still room for improvement. Ferdinan got the MOM , Henize had a good game and Giggs had a good game. Overall a good performance but still not vintage United.

Kirkland was on the bench but Dudek was not at fault for either goal.h he

Gerrard just interviewed on sky. he has a suspected broken metatarcel which was caused by getting his foot caught in the grass. If so he is out for 6 to 8 weeks

PHB

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'm so chuffed its unreal
Ain't been this happy since 1999 about football!

Happy with everyones preformance, cept maybe O'Shea and Scholes

WOOOHOOOOOOO
WOOOOHOHOHOOHOHOHOO

Still want the old 4-4-2 back with Scholes in midfield, hes been playing out of position and I guess will be until Rooney or Saha is back and can play up front.

WOOHOOOO

kida

Luis Garcia - the new Daglish - more like the new Nigel Clough. Not impressed at all by the pool - Hypia and Josemi had shockers as did Garcia and Kewell - Josemi was very lucky he didn't manage to grab Ronaldo that time, def a 2nd yellow if he had.

Thanx 4 The Fish

And Keane was lucky to stay on the pitch too after a couple of rash challenges. United were lucky with both decisions for the goals and the pool were lucky not to concede a penalty early on. In fairness it would have been a good gloss on a poor performance if we had have gotten a draw although there were a couple of dodgy decisions on offsides that Cisse was on the wrong side of, all we need now is perhaps two strikers up front and garcia playing in front of Gerrard or Hamann.

Johnny_the_fox

Ronan|Raven wrote:

*edit* Gerrard hopefully isnt to badly injured? Anyone ehar a report of how he is or what is wrong with him

from the liverpoolfc site

Steven Gerrard fears he could be sidelined for several weeks with the foot injury he sustained at Old Trafford on Monday night.
The Liverpool skipper left the action late in the first half and later he confessed he is fearing the worst when he undergoes an x-ray on Tuesday.

The Reds' medical team fear Gerrard has broken the metatarsal bone in his foot - an injury which could keep him out for up to two months.

Gerrard said: "There was no-one by me when Xabi Alonso gave me the ball and as I turned I felt a crack in my ankle.

"I'll know more about the injury in the morning when I have an x-ray and obviously I'll be devastated if I'm out for a long time."

out for 6-8 weeks.

jesus_thats_gre

Twas a poor game in the end with United creating far more chances. However, the goals they scored should not have happened because both set pieces the set up both goals should not have been given by the ref. But sure what ya gonna do like...

The Muppet

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

However, the goals they scored should not have happened because both set pieces should not have been given by the ref. But sure what ya gonna do like...

Sure they all even themselves out over a season.

Draupnir

to be honest, some of the opinions heere must be carrying a certain bias on either side. Man u were by far the better side in the first half. The played fluent passing football for the first time in two years, Ronaldo, Heinze and Keane were outstanding.

Ferdinand made a great comeback and Giggs showed some signs he can still play football.

On the other side of the coin I didnt think Liverpool created much and in fairness I thought they looked a poor side in all fairness. If a player like Luis Garcia cant get a game for Barcelona then surely hes not of the standard to make Liverpool great again and tonight he didnt show me much to convince me otherwise.

Man United, while not fantastic at times, looked like the might be on the way to some semblance of descency and with a few more moths of consistent team selection, I believe they could well be the best in the league again.

Paul Scholes looked off the boiled again and I would favour Smith in his position for a month or so, just to reinvigorate Scholes.

On John O'Shea, anyone who thought he was poor tonight is wrong, its that simple, to step up and play centre midfield in a match like that is very difficult, he looked comfortable on the ball and won some good tackles, the OG was unavoidable really.

Ive tried to be as unbiased as possible but I dont think anyone can honestly say United didnt deserve the three points.

And by the way, it wasnt a free, and it wasnt a corner, but thats neither here nor there, United deserved the win.

eirebhoy

O'Shea was not to blame for his og, it was deflected off Carroll and the slo-mo did him no favours.

What has Benitez being doing with the players? Finnan squaring up to the linesman when it was a clear ManU throw. :eek:

smemon

stunning from utd, very hungry and determined, impressed with keane, giggs, rio, o'shea and silvestre. ronaldo was magical, bloody brilliant and made a fool of kewell and risse.

we deserved to win (not too often i can say that proudly this season). liverpool did come on stronger 2nd half but didnt really create clear cut chances, was more forced pressure ie- get the ball in the box rather than play it in. utd had everything in front of them and just cleared upfield.

goal was unfortunate along with the peno inciden tbut then again our goals came from doggy decisions. liverpool fans might not agree, but i thought the ref was great, let a few tough challenges go and just let the players get on with things.

a massive win for utd with arsenal and chelsea dropping 2 points. rio made a difference no doubt but motm match for me was ronaldo, he was breathtaking at times and controlled the game for utd. if we had duff we'd be frightening down both flanks. long may that sort of effort and performance continue.

jesus_thats_gre

Let me just clear this up...

United deserved the win, I am not disputing that... What I am saying is though is that the two goals they scored shouldn't have happened basically.. They were definetly the better team and had far more chances.

eirebhoy

Draupnir wrote:

If a player like Luis Garcia cant get a game for Barcelona then surely hes not of the standard to make Liverpool great again and tonight he didnt show me much to convince me otherwise.

He was in Barca's first team last season. Liverpool would really have to have high standards if they can find a player that can get into a team containing the following forwards: Deco, Giuly, Ronaldinho, Larsson, Eto'o. Then you have other midfielders in Xavi, Gabri, Thiago Motta. Saviola would get into and strenghten most teams but he was still shipped out on loan.

Draupnir

I thought that Saviola was loaned out for some reason not to do with football but I may be wrong as I dont know the exact reason.

As regard Luis Garcia, I dont think he is of the standard. LIverpool shouldnt be settling for Barcelona rejects. The days when Liverpool were great wont return until they start to buy the best again. I honestly believe that will be only time when they return, not while they live off the scraps of Europes bigger clubs.

Xabi Alonso was the only signing they made this summer whom I would consider of the quality they should be buying if they want to scale the dizzy heights.

jesus_thats_gre

Draupnir wrote:

As regard Luis Garcia, I dont think he is of the standard. LIverpool shouldnt be settling for Barcelona rejects.

The thing is, he was not a reject.. They wanted him to stay..

jesus_thats_gre

Draupnir wrote:

I thought that Saviola was loaned out for some reason

He is with Monaco I think..

jesus_thats_gre

The Muppet wrote:

Sure they all even themselves out over a season.

I bloody well hope so.. Try being on the end of a Forlan and then Silvestre double and you would know how we feel..

United deserved the win though.

ButcherOfNog

Utd were awesome in the first half, deserved the win for it. On a plus side for Liverpool, Alonso showed why pool paid good money for him.

dirkey_wynne

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Twas a poor game in the end with United creating far more chances. However, the goals they scored should not have happened because both set pieces the set up both goals should not have been given by the ref. But sure what ya gonna do like...

Ya gonna count yourself lucky he didn't give the blatant peno. Imho the first goal it was a free kick. Hypia tackled from behind, and if you look at it in slow mo it's Scholes who kicks it out - therefore Hypia didn't get the ball. The second one blatantly wasn't a corner however. But despite all this it was atrocious defending by Liverpool which deserved to be punished. Overall Pool can't complain, they were second best iwth a certain Roy Keane running the show. By the way, Gerrard the great was on the pitch for 30 mins...once again he was put back in his box by the master. The only sign of him was each time he gave the ball away. I've said it before and will say it again, an overrated player who doesn't do it against the big teams.

dirkey_wynne

Draupnir wrote:

On John O'Shea, anyone who thought he was poor tonight is wrong, its that simple, to step up and play centre midfield in a match like that is very difficult, he looked comfortable on the ball and won some good tackles, the OG was unavoidable really.

QUOTE]O'Shea played well alright, but my God does he lack composure if he gets a sniff in front of goal - he doesn't half panic. And as for the goal, while the rebound was unfortunate - it was his fault. It was he who let Finnan go.

dirkey_wynne

eirebhoy wrote:

He was in Barca's first team last season. Liverpool would really have to have high standards if they can find a player that can get into a team containing the following forwards: Deco, Giuly, Ronaldinho, Larsson, Eto'o. Then you have other midfielders in Xavi, Gabri, Thiago Motta. Saviola would get into and strenghten most teams but he was still shipped out on loan.

Erm, Deco, Giuly, Larsson and Eto'o weren't at the team last season. Therefore he didn't get in a team containing those players!

midget lord

I never thought id say this but united were too physical for liverpool last night and ronaldo caused us some serious harm.

smuckers

Gerrard being out for 2 months is a massive blow for Pool.

The Rooster

Liverpool were pathetic in the first half. Hardly anyone can be exempted. Though in fairness, United played very well and conditions were terrible, and in that half the wind and rain were on the United backs and into the faces of Liverpool. Winning the toss certainly helped United.

Very much improved display from Liverpool in the second half, Alonso particularly impressive. Garcia should have been subbed rather than Cisse. I thought Dudek could have done better for the winner. It was a powerful header, but basically straight over Dudek's head. If he'd stood firm and raised a strong arm he *may* have had a chance of deflecting it over. Instead he just threw himself on the ground. I think Kirkland would have saved it.

I also thought Carroll could have taken the cross for the Liverpool goal.

I thought Keane was best player on the pitch by a distance. Easily man of the match. Good "debut" by Rio, though he is prone to the odd lapse in concentration. Wes Brown should make the right back spot his own, for club and country.

Dub13

Rio got man of the match....


Seriously, are Sky taking the pi*s? How did that git get man of the match? His center half partner scores 2 goals, and Rio gets Man of the match. Ronaldo tore our defence to pieces every time he got the ball, and Rio gets man of the match

I think this is another case of the English media hyping up a player only to hack him down in a few years.

BaZmO*

Stekelly wrote:

ferdinand is eating am energy bar. thats a new one

Yeah, never seen that before, he probably had a dose of the munchies!!

Hopefully it doesn't start a trend. I just have visions of Richard Dunne running around the City ground clutching a Big Mac and large fries!!!!

Back to the match, I thought Utd. thoroughly deserved the win, particularly on their first half performance. I was a bit worried at half time that Utd. were only one up considering all the possession and chances that they had.

Ronaldo had a cracker of a game, as did Keane, he looked much more like his old self and I think those two deserved the MOM award much more than Ferdinand although I reckon the only reason why they gave him the honour was to allow Sky speak to him after the match.
He did have a good game, except for one mistake in the first half that his team mates luckily bailed him out from.

All in all a very promising result from Utd. and a very worrying result for the Pool. Why is it always that whenever Gerrard has a poor game the whole team do to?? Not a good sign imho.

B.

Dub13

we all watched the 'welcome back rio' celebration last night, shame there had to be a game that got in its way.

Dub13

Stekelly wrote:

ferdinand is eating am energy bar. thats a new one

Anyone else notice that he held the wrapper up to the camera?When Poll got his book out for Garcia I thought he was going to take Rio's Main Course order.

Strange - yes, because as soon as you eat something the blood gets diverted from your muscles etc to your gut therefore causing you to feel tired.Would be much better to drink a sugary drink, but agree that it was a publicity stunt - I wonder how long it'll be before the brand he eat becomes common knowledge.

midget lord

Paddy Power were taking bets on rio forgetting what way he was playing and scoring an own goal, 50-1 i think.

Take it

embarrasing performance by liverpool they just never looked like scoring 1 up front isn't enough i don't like the tactic and i dont think it will get liverpool to far in the premiership!!

yop

United deserved the win. Best I have seen us play in a long time, bit of drive and bite to them. Scouse were very poor, had an odd spell in the 2nd half but bar Cisses rendition of Andy Cole there was nothing to worry about. O'Shea let Finnan go alright for the goal and was very unlucky to know it in. Was neither a free kick or a corner for the goals but the defending was brutal, still 2 good headers. Keane was lucky alright he caught him in the 2nd challenge and did not get the ball, bar that he was top notch. Scholes was the poorest player for United, very out of sorts. Smith should be in there instead of him. Some strage decisions on the offside, am not impressed with Cisse, if the ball is not pumped over teh top for him he will not come and get it, and then when he does all he seems to do is shoot on sight. Alonso was very impressive, has a good career ahead of him. Still a win is a win, both teams are inconsistent at the moment, we could turn around and flop on saturday yet!

PHB

Scholes is being played out of position, its that simple

He is a centre midfielder who is being played as a second striker, if you saw the spots O'Shea got into last night you would have preferred Scholes there And where Scholes was you'd prefer a striker there, which will happen once Saha or Rooney gets back.

Bring back the old 4-4-2

I thought the free kick was a free kick, the corner wasn't a corner, and the peno was a peno.
It doens't all even out in the end but tonight it did.

Oh how I want video replay!

eirebhoy

dirkey_wynne wrote:

Erm, Deco, Giuly, Larsson and Eto'o weren't at the team last season. Therefore he didn't get in a team containing those players!

Draupnir said why are Liverpool going for players that can't make the Barca team. I didn't know whether he was talking about this season or last season so I told him he was getting his game last season and if he was talking about this season, Pool must have high standards if they can get a player who'd get into a team with the players listed. I would regard Barca as at least on par with Madrid, Liverpool just sold there first choice striker to Madrid where he's now forth choice. Anyway, someone said Garcia was the one that wanted to leave so its neither here nor there.

Shred

Raging over the game last night tbh, I think this nicely sums it up (even though it's from the official LFC site):

DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR RAFA'S RAIN-SOAKED REDS
Mark Platt 21 September 2004


It never rains but it pours. On a wet and windy night in Manchester Liverpool lost more than a football match.
Losing to arch-rivals United is never nice. In fact it's a horrible gut-wrenching experience that takes some time to get over. To also lose your most influential player in the process and be faced with the prospect of being without him for a considerable chunk of the season makes it even more galling.

But even before Steven Gerrard hobbled dejectedly off the rain-soaked Old Trafford pitch, Liverpool were in danger of being overran by their rampant hosts and there could have been no complaints had they gone in at the interval counting the cost of a four or five goal deficit.

Yes, our first half performance was that bad.

On recent form we went into this highly charged fixture as favourites. Impressive victories against West Brom and Monaco had raised the levels of optimism among Liverpudlians and with United's confidence fragile, given their poor start to the season, we were told that they were there for the taking.

Not that Rafael Benitez would have fallen into the trap of under-estimating the challenge that his side faced here. No game against Manchester United is ever going to be easy and this was always going to provide a truer picture of the progress the Reds have made under his guidance.

Rafa kept faith with the starting eleven that had clinically seen off Monaco in midweek and there will have been few voices of discontent about that among the vociferous travelling contingent inside the stadium.

But from the first whistle it quickly became evident that Liverpool would not be allowed to play the fluid flowing football that so enraptured the Anfield gallery in the last two games.

United started as if their Premiership lives depended on it and, with Cristiano Ronaldo in inspirational form, laid siege to Jerzy Dudek's goal for the majority of the opening 45 minutes.

Their opening strike came as no surprise. The free-kick from which it stemmed was a touchharsh to say the least but there can be no excuses for allowing Mikael Silvestre to head home at the far post unopposed.

It was a defensive error of schoolboy proportions and United gleefully accepted this unexpected gift.

As the Liverpool defence held their inquests the pressure continued unabated and the visitors were in danger of drowning under the relentless red tide.

It took 25 minutes before the yellow shirts threatened Roy Carroll's goal but Josemi's speculative shot from distance was never going in and the home crowd lapped it up.

The returning Rio Ferdinand was enjoying one of the most comfortable nights of his career in the centre of defence, although if Steven Gerrard had capitalised on his slip at the back in the 35th minute the decision of Sky TV to award him the man-of-the-match award would have been even more ludicrous than it was.

Gerrard was far from at his best and he was not the only one. He struggled to impose his authority on the midfield and his night got worse shortly before the break when he was forced to leave the field with a suspected broken bone in his foot.

Harry Kewell was another who found it difficult to get into the game, while Luis Garcia at times looked lost amid the frenzied tempo of this fiercely contested north-west derby.

His compatriot Xabi Alonso, however, was a class act. He was Liverpool's undoubted star man on a night to forget and had his stunning attempt to catch Carroll off his line from the halfway line midway through the second period resulted in a goal it would have been rightly hailed as the greatest of all-time.

What Benitez said to his players during the break only he and they will but it certainly did the trick and a clearly revitalised Liverpool looked a different team altogether in the second half.

With substitute Didi Hamann now pulling the strings in middle of the park United were suddenly being forced onto the back foot and the equalising strike was deserved. Alonso's centred from the left, Finnan headed across the six-yard box and the ball was deflected over the line by O'Shea.

It was not the prettiest of goals but who cared? Liverpool were back in the game and for a spell looked a good bet to go on and claim all three points. If not, a share of the spoils definitely seemed on the cards until a combination of another poor refereeing decision and more careless defending handed victory to the grateful hosts.

The man in black, Graham Poll, wrongly awarded United a corner and from the resultant kick Silvestre again ghosted in to beat Dudek with a header for the second time.

Thousands of flash bulbs lit up the murky Mancunian night sky in celebration and the majority of United fans were able to make the long journey home safe in the knowledge that although it's only September they'd triumphed in their cup final already.

We could blame the ref but at the end of the day Liverpool got what they deserved for an inept first half performance.

The fact we almost stole something from a game that looked well beyond our reach at half-time suggests there is light at the end of what may this morning seem a long dark tunnel.

Even even without the skipper.

StickyMcGinty

disgrace bout rio getting man of the match, they should have just given him the champagne before he went out on the pitch, typical really!

Garcia ran his socks off, didnt have a great game, but then, who did. hamann came on and played better than stevie (who was resorting to his 50 yards hard passing again) alonso played well i thought for a new signing. josemi had a tough time, but ronaldo, who beats the same player twice only to loose the ball to the next player is REALLY overrated. Kewell is a disgrace. he and cisse didnt even TRY last ngiht. if this was champo manager, i'd be fining wages!

the second united goal was not a corner in the first place, i thought poll was a very home town ref last night, along with some of the offside decisions in the first half.

finnan wasnt too bad i suppose, but ou can tell he's a full back.

any pressure on the united back four, and they were all over the shop. i wouldnt judge uniteds back four on one game.

and this zonal marking thisng is a load a shíte. you give a player a 10 yard run on gaol and he'll beat you every time. and as the first goal showed, you can miss men when they run.

overall its a case of "back to the drawing board" for liverpool. poor performance. very poor. and its a test now, because gerrard isnt going to be able to carry the team around for 2 months. i for one, am worried.

shabbyroad

This match might just bring us back down to earth. Losing Stevie G. is a right kick in the balls. We still have a way to go. Man U. were by far the better team on the night although we did manage a couple of chances in the 2nd half - though I wonder if that was more down to law-of-averages than anything else.

Now we'll see what these new boys are made of.

jesus_thats_gre

Was there not a penalty decision that should have gone Liverpool's way??

You lot seem to be forgetting this while constantly highlighting the decision that did not go United's way.. Shame on ye..

smemon

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Was there not a penalty decision that should have gone Liverpool's way??

You lot seem to be forgetting this while constantly highlighting the decision that did not go United's way.. Shame on ye..

clutching at straws a bit, it wasnt a peno anyway, had the ref given that and not utd's he'd deserved to have be shot. ronaldo hit the post early on, didnt see that mentioned! (ball back in jesus_thats_great's court)

dirkey_wynne

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Was there not a penalty decision that should have gone Liverpool's way??

You lot seem to be forgetting this while constantly highlighting the decision that did not go United's way.. Shame on ye..

Well people say you make your own luck. And we deserved the luck last night as we were by far the better team.

BKtje

who beats the same player twice only to loose the ball to the next player is REALLY overrated.

I didnt see him loose the ball that often last night. He beat a lot of players then do a nice pass through for brown or a cross. he was very impressive last night imo

Thanx 4 The Fish

Dub13 wrote:

Anyone else notice that he held the wrapper up to the camera?When Poll got his book out for Garcia I thought he was going to take Rio's Main Course order.

Strange - yes, because as soon as you eat something the blood gets diverted from your muscles etc to your gut therefore causing you to feel tired.Would be much better to drink a sugary drink, but agree that it was a publicity stunt - I wonder how long it'll be before the brand he eat becomes common knowledge.

It was a Jaffa cake bar, I saw it on the coverage. Am surprised that nobody else did.

Draupnir

ya cant beat a nice jaffa

ButcherOfNog

I dunno why yis are all arguing. On the nite Man UTD played Liverpool off the park in the first half, second half was pretty even. UTD deserved the win, they got it. Some of Liverpools new signings were pretty much lost in the speed of the game, its not surprising really.

The surprising thing was Alonso, if he continues like that, him and Hamman will tide us over nicely till Gerrard gets back, well miss him but not as much as we would have last season. Its early days yet, not overly concerned about losing last nite, going down by 1 goal away to UTD isn't a disaster, we play them again later in the season at Anfield and we should be more settled then. Pools only other loss was away to Bolton, who've taken points off UTD and Arsenal as well, and Pool still have a game in hand.

I actually think Rio and Alonso were the most impressive players on the pitch, Rio was very commanding in defense, he'll make a big change to UTD's fortunes this season.