PL: Liverpool v Manchester United. 6/3/2011, KO 1330.

Mayo Exile

As its only a day away, probably time to fire up a thread on this now. Latest team news from BBC Football.

Liverpool's club record signing Andy Carroll has trained since Wednesday and is being considered for his debut after overcoming a thigh injury.

Martin Kelly is out for a month with a torn hamstring, but Raul Meireles should recover from a knee problem.

Wes Brown is expected to partner Chris Smalling in Manchester United's defence, with Nemanja Vidic banned and Rio Ferdinand unlikely to be fit.

Ryan Giggs is poised to make a club record 607th league appearance.

---

Liverpool
Doubtful: Agger (thigh), Carroll (thigh/fitness), Meireles (knee)

Injured: Kelly (hamstring), Shelvey (knee)

Manchester United
Suspended: Vidic (one match)

Doubtful: Evra (unknown), Ferdinand (calf), Owen (groin)

Injured: Anderson & Hargreaves (both knee), Evans & Valencia (both ankle), Park (hamstring)

Let the fun begin! I think it'll be 1-0 Pool.

Headshot

unfortunately pool will win this

1-0

Nalz

2-0 pool

Headshot

Oh also numerous bannings/infractions and thread to be closed before 50 pages

DOC09UNAM

Lads you're all being very optimistic.

3-0 Pool.


Needs crests and stuff tbh :P

DOC09UNAM

Headshot wrote: »

Oh also numerous bannings/infractions and thread to be closed before 50 pages

Paddypower giving odds on that HS??

Might be worth lumping on.

dahat

United to shut up shop and commit robbery on merseyside with a draw


With none of this again...

DOC09UNAM

dahat wrote: »

United to shut up shop and be one of many to commit robbery on merseyside with a draw

I know it's a joke but is there any need for that bit??

This thread is going to be chaotic anyway, there's no need for provocation :pac:

Liam O

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Needs crests and stuff tbh :P

first thing I noticed when I opened the thread. Must be amateur hour

dahat

Liam O wrote: »

first thing I noticed when I opened the thread. Must be amateur hour

Ah,reason you are here then?;)

Score draw,Rooney to get the line late on.
Giggs to get the equaliser

curry-muff

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Needs crests and stuff tbh :P

Liverpool fans never do it right do they

Takes a United fan to make a decent thread :pac:

Mayo Exile

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Needs crests and stuff tbh :P

Apologies! Fixed I hope!

Nailz

Not predicting the score, but I don't think it'll be one bit comfortable for us, I'll fear the worst.

Oh and 5+ bans.

5starpool

Hopefully the atmosphere and result will be as good as last year. Pity I've a silly early start to go to this, but hopefully won't be a painful journey home as I've to go through Manchester for it.

K-9

Normally confident enough on this one, edgy this time.

Aurelio isn't on the injury list above so that's good, maybe they took it as a given! I've a feeling he'll start with Carra RB and a 4-2-3-1 with Kuyt as striker, Suarez on the left and Gerrard middle, Maxi right, but sure who knows with Kenny!

It's a pity SAF didn't do the presser, I understand his reasons but would have been great banter!

I think articles have been posted on both superthreads about the links between Kenny and SAF, both on and off the pitch, a new insight from the excellent James Lawton, always a good read:

James Lawton: A 25-year-old row divides them, but Dalglish and Ferguson are united by the need to rebuild - News & Comment, Football - The Independent

James Lawton: A 25-year-old row divides them, but Dalglish and Ferguson are united by the need to rebuild



If the true nature of the enmity between Sir Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish still provokes a hundred theories on the eve of their latest confrontation, there is also a strong suspicion of where its roots flourished most vigorously.


It still lingers powerfully that it was in the fetid, gang-infested new town of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl on the edge of Mexico City 25 years ago where Ferguson's unabashed admiration for the brilliance of his fellow Glaswegian congealed into an unshakeable resentment or, if not that, the keenest of regret.


One thing at least is beyond question. No football manager ever yearned more for the services of a single player as Ferguson's Scotland, his inheritance from the beloved hero and mentor Jock Stein who died of a heart attack on the road to that World Cup, sought the single goal against 10-man Uruguay that would have carried them into the knockout stages for the first time.


Down all the intervening years the issue of Dalglish's absence that day remains so delicate that in his forthright autobiography Managing My Life the Manchester United manager carefully quoted from his rival's life story when he addressed the question that still haunts Scottish football history.
Did Dalglish advance the time of a knee operation – and withdraw from the Scotland squad – out of the strictest medical necessity or in protest over the exclusion of his Liverpool team-mate and great friend Alan Hansen by Ferguson, who decided in favour of his Aberdeen stalwarts Alex McLeish and Willie Miller?


Dalglish's denial is emphatic but this does not reduce the fascination of re-reading Ferguson's account of the episode.
Ferguson recalled: "Having weighed and sifted all the evidence to the point where my squad was virtually complete, I came back to the thorny question of Alan Hansen. In fact it had ceased to be a question. I was leaving him out. I had not looked for a reason to do so. I had never fallen out with him and had no axe to grind.
"My criteria were strictly those of a football manager and there's no contradiction in adding that the memory of how Alan dropped out of the game in Cardiff [where Stein died] and then the England game loomed large in my thinking. I simply felt that he did not deserve to go to Mexico. But I realised that Kenny Dalglish would take a different view and made sure he was the first player I contacted on the day before the squad was announced.
"After telling him how pleased I was he would be with us, I gave him the news that I would not be taking Alan Hansen. Kenny made the expected response. He said, 'He's a great player – you cannot leave him out.'
"Shortly before we were due to fly out, Kenny called off. We were informed that he was going in for an operation on his knee."


Later, Dalglish wrote: "People claimed I was snubbing Fergie out of spite over Alan. That was not true. Those who said I pulled out because Alan Hansen wasn't picked were not only libelling me but impugning the integrity of the surgeon who told me not to go."


Ferguson, who was later frank about his unhappiness with some aspects of his own performance in a Group of Death that also included West Germany and a brilliantly promising Denmark, contented himself with a series of sighs – and the comment, "His extraordinary talent was matched by unbreakable courage, an attribute the importance of which is often overlooked when great players are dazzling us with their skills.
"Kenny was physically and mentally tough and he had an aura around him that would have been priceless in the Scottish camp."


That makes two auras at Anfield tomorrow – and the riveting sense that neither of them can often have been in quite so pressing need of such reinforcement.
It is one of the redeeming beauties of football that it can so frequently throw up such pivotal set-pieces requiring so much nerve and belief in how the game should be played.
Ferguson has to kick hard and re-start the drive for his 12th Premier League title that wobbled, after a fine first-half display, with defeat at Chelsea on Tuesday. He has to discourage again an Arsenal maybe psychologically vulnerable after their failure to end the six-year drought of trophies against Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final last Sunday and faced with another ordeal by fire at the Nou Camp.


Dalglish has to hold together a Liverpool hugely heartened by the return of that aura, and the re-imposition of some classic values, but bruised by a defeat by lowly West Ham last Sunday and its reminder that for the moment at least the essential task remains one of damage control.
After all these years of mingled respect and animosity, Ferguson and Dalglish are locked together by some of the game's most basic imperatives. Ferguson, 69, Dalglish, nearly a decade younger, must do what all football men have to sooner or later, whatever their previous success. They have to re-make teams, give them new impetus, new reasons to believe that they can succeed.


In both cases – they have no doubt already told their American owners – the re-seeding will necessarily be expensive. Both need players of world-class talent and powerful influence. With Paul Scholes draining the last of his good red wine, and Ryan Giggs also contemplating rather less than a half-filled glass, Ferguson needs a major midfielder, a man the team can look to when something extra is required. Such a player was required at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea came back to United and he simply was not there.


Dalglish's requirement is also self-evident. Steven Gerrard remains capable of erupting brilliantly from time to time, but if he can be the inspiration of a team he is not the shaper of one. His football brain does not work in that way. Liverpool's most urgent need is someone in the image of Xabi Alonso, a driver, a tough obsessive, and no doubt Dalglish is more aware of this than anyone.


Meanwhile, Ferguson and Dalglish, the odd but compelling Scottish couple, will do what they can. But then you wouldn't want a whole lot more on any football high noon.

For the neutrals, a bit of background:


Kenny Dalglish expects respect but no free ride from Sir Alex Ferguson | Football | The Guardian

How Soon Is Now

Its not gonna be an easy game for United with us missing Vidic and Rio but after watching way we played in the first half at Chelsea if we can do anything like that with a Liverpool team that is not as strong all over the pitch as Chelsea are i think United should win.

Im hoping Berbatov gets more of a game as well crazy having him hardly play last few games when hes our top scorer this season.

I think either 2-1 or 2-0 to United.

Lukker-

Think it'll be a draw, but I can't see how United will not concede.

How Soon Is Now

Lukker- wrote: »

Think it'll be a draw, but I can't see how United will not concede.

Think all depends weather Carroll plays or not and weather hes ready and fit for the match.

If he really goes at United then could be in for some hassle with Vidic missing.

Jazzy

utd fans defeatist nature coming through "well if we lose at least I win on saying we will lose"

NukaCola

Would be happy with a point if i'm being honest......Utd really have to win this IMO.

1-2 ManUtd win would be my prediction...

ROCKMAN

Vidic missing massive lost , but still think Utd have enough going forward..
2-1 Utd ,
Yes Liverpool will raise their game but still think they are just a bit short in depth.

Mister men

1-1. Carrick 35 mins and Kuyt 68 mins. Two red cards one a piece.

PHB

I think we'll win.

Heading over to this.

Love to see Carroll getting some game time.

We have to improve in the middle of the pitch from the Hammers match or we're in trouble.

flahavaj

Big Wesley is gonna have a stormer I can feel it in my bones. United to the core.

Also this talk of rivalry between Fergie and Kenny is vastly overstated, they actually get on great. Didn't Dalglish single out Fergie as the man he wanted to write the intro to his biography (or possibly the other way round?) I think they enjoy the bit of Scots banter but they've the height of respect for each other.

Carrick vs Lucas will be an epic battle of the most maligned men in the PL.

flahavaj

flahavaj wrote: »

Big Wesley is gonna have a stormer I can feel it in my bones. United to the core.

Also this talk of rivalry between Fergie and Kenny is vastly overstated, they actually get on great. Didn't Dalglish single out Fergie as the man he wanted to write the intro to his biography (or possibly the other way round?) I think they enjoy the bit of Scots banter but they've the height of respect for each other.

Carrick vs Lucas will be an epic battle of the most maligned men in the PL.

Fergie wrote the Foreword for Kenny's first book (mid 90's ) and Kenny speaks highly of him in his latest book.

They have the greatest of respect for one another.

Ordinary man

It wouldn't surprise me to see liverpool win this. It is their cup final, their last chance to rescue some self respect in a season of pure rubbish. Yeah they have the europa league:rolleyes:, but tomorrow they need to get the points to keep their chances of competing in that also ran competition next season:p.

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

ShamoBuc

Ordinary man wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me to see liverpool win this. It is their cup final, their last chance to rescue some self respect in a season of pure rubbish. Yeah they have the europa league:rolleyes:, but tomorrow they need to get the points to keep their chances of competing in that also ran competition next season:p.

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

and people sometimes wonder where ABU attitudes come from......

wandatowell

Hope i see a better Liverpool team that showed up against the hammers.

I'm feeling this is gonna be 2-1 to the 'Pool

Leiva

Ordinary man wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me to see liverpool win this. It is their cup final, their last chance to rescue some self respect in a season of pure rubbish. Yeah they have the europa league:rolleyes:, but tomorrow they need to get the points to keep their chances of competing in that also ran competition next season:p.

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

Quite sad TBH

DOC09UNAM

ShamoBuc wrote: »

and people sometimes wonder where ABU attitudes come from......

mixednuts wrote: »

Quite sad TBH

I'm gonna go out and a limb and suggest it may have been a joke :rolleyes:

Fowler87

I reckon a high scoring draw is on the cards for tomorrow...2-2 and possibly 3-3:eek: Soto Kyrgiakos to do a Razor Ruddock in the last minute and slam home an equalizer:pac:

Leiva

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I'm gonna go out and a limb and suggest it may have been a joke :rolleyes:

Of course it is now after you said that

K-9

Ordinary man wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me to see liverpool win this. It is their cup final, their last chance to rescue some self respect in a season of pure rubbish. Yeah they have the europa league:rolleyes:, but tomorrow they need to get the points to keep their chances of competing in that also ran competition next season:p.

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

That really is a win, win post, isn't it!

Just another game!

NukaCola

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I'm gonna go out and a limb and suggest it may have been a joke :rolleyes:

Maybe...
Comes across as a bit of a plonker IMO....

Bodhisopha

He really let himself down with that post.

Ordinary man

Ordinary man wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me to see liverpool win this. It is their cup final, their last chance to rescue some self respect in a season of pure rubbish. Yeah they have the europa league:rolleyes:, but tomorrow they need to get the points to keep their chances of competing in that also ran competition next season:p.

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

And so it begins..

Headshot

K-9

Headshot wrote: »

[IMG][/img]http://i52.tinypic.com/2m6qtm8.jpg

I'd forgotten Berba was shouting for us tomorrow.

Will I Amnt

Ordinary man wrote: »

For united its just another game in another title chasing season. Hopefully they won't be distracted by the other trophies that are still on offer:cool:

Prediction 2-2

It's far from just another game,this could throw a major spanner in the works of our title chase,there's a good chance we will be going into the game just a point ahead of arsenal who have a far more favourable run in,I'd say 3 points tomorrow is a must in fergies mind

Headshot

K-9 wrote: »

I'd forgotten Berba was shouting for us tomorrow.

Cant believe a man utd player would be shouting for pool

the plot thickens

m@cc@

ShamoBuc wrote: »

and people sometimes wonder where ABU attitudes come from......

mixednuts wrote: »

Quite sad TBH

BumbleBee123 wrote: »

Maybe...
Comes across as a bit of a plonker IMO....

Bodhisopha wrote: »

He really let himself down with that post.

rarnes1 wrote: »

And so it begins..

Lighten up, FFS. Is was clearly tongue-in-cheek given the use of smilies.

Result depends a lot on whether Carroll will play, I suspect he won't. Score draw, I'll say.

NukaCola

m@cc@ wrote: »

Lighten up, FFS. Is was clearly tongue-in-cheek given the use of smilies.

Result depends a lot on whether Carroll will play, I suspect he won't. Score draw, I'll say.

No....you cant tell me what to do! (insert smiley to make statement a joke)

Dave!

A bit of WINNING! from United would be much appreciated

m@cc@

BumbleBee123 wrote: »

No....you cant tell me what to do! (insert smiley to make statement a joke)

It was a suggestion but you have my admiration for defiance of an internet posting.

CR 7

K-9 wrote: »

I'd forgotten Berba was shouting for us tomorrow.

Hopefully he'll be doing his warm-up beside Reina's goal. Shake his collar, and Reina'll be transfixed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usGkYYLEUK0

flahavaj

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

Hopefully he'll be doing his warm-up beside Reina's goal. Shake his collar, and Reina'll be transfixed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usGkYYLEUK0

Did we ever figure out what this was about? I reckon Berba let a rotten fart but managed to keeop a straight face.

m@cc@

flahavaj wrote: »

Did we ever figure out what this was about? I reckon Berba let a rotten fart but managed to keeop a straight face.

He's clearly not looking at Berba, rather at the crowd.

Mr.Nice Guy

Wouldn't like to be the ref for this one.

dahat

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Wouldn't like to be the ref for this one.

Who is the ref?

Edit..........Phil Dowd

Headshot

dahat wrote: »

Who is the ref?

Phil Dowd