Manchester United vs Liverpool - 1:30pm Sunday 19th Sept

Barr

Torres in slow motion for the goal lol

mink_man

bad start to the season for pool it's looking like.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

Substandard thread so far.:(

Chardee MacDennis

now lets see what roy is made of, if we come out with the same tactics i wont be happy...

Degag

I hope we can push on and score another one or two. Too often we rest on our laurels when we go a goal up and get punished.

Sappy404

Torres shouldn't have been marking Berbatov anyway. Surely a defender should be marking one of the two strikers.

stumpypeeps

Very poor fare from Liverpool. No urgency, no gameplan. Making an ordinary United side look much better than they are.

d22ontour

Decent half by United, hope we don't regret the Nani miss.

mink_man

Sappy404 wrote: »

Torres shouldn't have been marking Berbatov anyway. Surely a defender should be marking one of the two strikers.

I'd have thought the centre halves could be marking the opposite centre halves as that's where the ball would be aimed to..

Mr.Nice Guy

Must say I didn't see a goal coming. Vidic was probably the best player. Looks very eager to put his bad experiences behind him.

Gonzovision

Pool missing Yossi.

niallo27

Why is torres making the main centre half and why no talk of zonal defending

Kess73

To be honest going in only a goal down at HT after all the chances that United have had is not a disaster.

Columbia

You have to admire the enigmatic genius of Roy Hodgson, putting a striker with no defensive nouse up against United's main goal threat at the moment, whilst leaving an actual defender standing by the post.

jaykay74

Not counting any chickens yet. Unless Utd are 2 up in injury time and even then.. sometimes...

Liverpool must surely improve on that muck from the 1st half.

opr

It might have been answered but I thought Meireles played centre mid ? I don't understand him playing behind Torres and Gerrard playing in midfield ?

United fully deserve to be 1 up.

Opr

Ordinary man

Liverpool looking and playing like rangers mid week, but this united performance is much better

mink_man

Kess73 wrote: »

To be honest going in only a goal down at HT after all the chances that United have had is not a disaster.

liverpool have scored 2 goals so far this season...I'm not shaking with fear of liverpool scoring.

jonnyfingers

That half flew by. Always a sign of a good game. I just hope United knock in a few more, don't want to be going into the last few minutes with a slender lead after what happened in the last few games!

LuckyLloyd

Very poor. Torres and Gerrard don't look interested. Maxi, Cole and Meireles have been largely anonymous. Konchesky and Poulsen not good. Johnson is doing better than last Sunday so that's good I guess.

Just look very stale and flat. Can't see us scoring if we continue playing as we have.

Awfully distressing - particularly when, while they fully deserve the lead, Utd aren't performing close to what they're capable of.

anonymous_joe

mink_man wrote: »

liverpool have scored 2 goals so far this season...I'm not shaking with fear of liverpool scoring.

You can never trust Pool.

jesus_thats_gre

This is horrible to watch.. Poulsen is so damned wasteful in possession. Then you have Cole is nearly as bad and refuses to stay out on the wing. Maxi is tucking in too and it's leading to us being far too narrow. Finally, Torres looks like he doesn't trust the players around him - just like Stevie G used to do before Torres signed.

The club is in serious trouble.

Sideshow Mark

Missing Lucas in midfield so much it hurts. No holding, no link up with the frontman, it's a disaster for us right now.

nullzero

stumpypeeps wrote: »

Very poor fare from Liverpool. No urgency, no gameplan. Making an ordinary United side look much better than they are.

I expected liverpool to press when United are in possession like they've been doing to great affect over the last few seasons.
It's been a poor performance from liverpool but United should be making more of this game, hopefully we can grab a couple more goals to make it comfortable. If it stays 1-0 the last few minutes will be a free for all and anything could happen.

Xavi6

Columbia wrote: »

You have to admire the enigmatic genius of Roy Hodgson, putting a striker with no defensive nouse up against United's main goal threat at the moment, whilst leaving an actual defender standing by the post.

Crouch, Adebayor and Drogba amongst others are used by their respective teams to mark when defending corners. The reason? They are good in the air, same as Torres.

Hardly a revolutionary decision.

mike65

[insert sad panda pic here]

Well three from Babel, N'Gog, Lucas and Pacheco have to come on to rescue the day.

mink_man

Columbia wrote: »

You have to admire the enigmatic genius of Roy Hodgson, putting a striker with no defensive nouse up against United's main goal threat at the moment, whilst leaving an actual defender standing by the post.

so you'd prefer konchesky who is one of the smaller players, marking one of our taller players for a corner?

small players always go on the post, and height also plays a part in who's marking who.

jesus_thats_gre

And if we lose this, it will be our worst start for 18 years

titan18

Has Joe Cole had a touch of the ball?

3hn2givr7mx1sc

There has to be a good gif coming with that defending from Torres on BerbaGod.

jesus_thats_gre

Are Sky now advocating zonal marking? Nope, they are blaming Torres being used to zonal marking. This is ****ing comedy.

everdead.ie

Torres should of been capabile of stopping that goal Torres is a very good headerer of the Ball and should of attacked the ball instead of trying to hold onto Berba and stop him jumping.

stumpypeeps

I actually thought Poulsen was the best of the Liverpool players today. So disappointed by Torres. He's a liability on the pitch at the moment.

monkey9

So Sky are still blaming zonal marking for us conceding even though we're not using it simply because we're not used to man marking!!

HAHAHAHAHAHa The media!! Idiots Idiots everywhere

niallo27

Kess73 wrote: »

To be honest going in only a goal down at HT after all the chances that United have had is not a disaster.

It was their first shot on target wasn't it, bar the first 15 it's being even enough, utd are always going have more of the ball up there

wheres me jumpa

Delighted we are ahead. Slightly dissappointed we havent created more clear cut chances considering the possession we have had. Would like to see Nani beat Konchesky more and Scholes to get a bit more room in the second half. Hopefully we can put this to bed early in the second half.

Drumpot

Liverpool very very lucky that its not more then 1 goal and lucky that the ref hasnt awarded united at least one peno. Hey, thats football, but Im sure were roles reversed , Webb would be called a United ref ! ! :rolleyes:

Suppose it shows why Liverpool for so long in these games have been all about simply containing united and knicking goals (they just arent good enough to beat even an under par united , by outplaying them!). .

Rooney has been very wasteful and is not working as hard as he usually does (obviously off form). Ironically Nani and Berbatov look on the ball, hard working and ready to take the fight up for the cause.

O'Shea is looking more and more like a deserving united starter. He played welll last season (until injured) and looks comfortable in the starting lineup.

What worries me is that this has really been a feature of United this season. Play well, get ahead, look comfortable and then they have been blowing leads. Liverpool's confidence looks very very fragile, but if they got a goal, the game could go completely the opposite way.

How long before united are once again branded a "one man team" by the bitterbrigade ..

LuckyLloyd

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Are Sky now advocating zonal marking? Nope, they are blaming Torres being used to zonal marking. This is ****ing comedy.

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

argosy2006

Not once did we look for torres over the top, and considering the vast waste land behind the united defense in first half i,m shocked,
United pressed forward whole first half,Their defense was close to half way line,
as soon as liverpool got it we should have been looking for torres, but no we just knock it around back and fourth between midfield and defense until we lose it again,
Now that united have scored i cant see us having chance to exploit them as much,
Can only see us been exploited if and when we push forward to try to get back into it,
But atleast we have take more risks now,It looked like we were playing for a draw!!!!! thats not liverpool, Hell thats not even stoke!

mink_man

From what I see of torres, he never has any thought of defending, all he wants to do is score the goals.

IvySlayer

About the Torres marking, doesn't he make a living trying to outjump people in the box?

He just didn'ts eem bothered about wanting to do it and was just content in standing behind him.

Glad too see Berba get a goal, Konchesky wasn't near enough to his post and was just in Reinas way. He tried to stick his hand out, and I thought maybe he might have could a slight touch on it.

jesus_thats_gre

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

As they explained further, they are blaming the fact that Torres is only experienced marking a zone and that that is the reason that he field to man mark Berbatov correctly.

nullzero

titan18 wrote: »

Has Joe Cole had a touch of the ball?

He played a lovely ball into space for Konchesky to cross... The less said about the cross from Konchesky the better.

I expected Joe Cole to have a big influence on the game, it hasn't worked out that way so far.

everdead.ie

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

They aren't calling for Zonal marking to return they said it was a big change that Roy would of worked on in pre season but Torres wasn't there for it and it is a big change for him.

LuckyLloyd

stumpypeeps wrote: »

I actually thought Poulsen was the best of the Liverpool players today. So disappointed by Torres. He's a liability on the pitch at the moment.

He's not making any plays! Not impacting the game.

SantryRed

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

I think their point is valid. Saying Torres has been out injured for a lot of pre season and therefore wouldn't have been there for the shift from zonal to man marking.

Blackhorse Slim

What is it with Liverpool this season that we're awful i the first half? Every game.

Hopefully it picks up second half.

jesus_thats_gre

mink_man wrote: »

From what I see of torres, he never has any thought of defending, all he wants to do is score the goals.

You obviously don't see much and your comment is a pretty accurate reflection of your general knowledge in football.

Torres is generally an extremely hard worker and puts a lot of pressure on oppossing defenders and deeper lying midifielders. He is also back for every corner the club defends.

monkey9

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

No, they're not calling for it. But they still blamed because.......Torres is more used to zonal marking than man marking.

Seriously, i think Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews are writing their scripts.

ShooterSF

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not watching Sky but wow if they are now calling for Zonal marking. Surreal really.

They said Torres has been trained only in zonal marking and missed out on preseason to learn how to man mark basically.

Even as a United fan I laughed.