With just over half an hour played Jamie Carragher fouled Michael Carrick in the penalty area. He got a foot to the ball but didn’t put it out of Carrick’s path, yet he did bring our midfielder down. If it had happened outside of the box it would have been an obvious freekick and a yellow card. For it to happen inside of the box it should have been a penalty and at least a yellow card, yet the referee gave nothing.
With a few minutes remaining on the clock, Carragher brought down Michael Owen as our striker threatened to race through one on one with the goalkeeper. It was similar to the challenge that saw Nemanja Vidic sent off for his foul on Steven Gerrard last season, although in this instance Carragher was actually the last man. Instead of giving the obvious red card, the referee simply booked Carragher and awarded a freekick.
A red card wouldn’t have made amends for what we deserved though: a one on one opportunity against the goalie. There’s no one in our team I would rather to be in that situation than Owen who almost certainly would have scored.
Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken in a controlled manner after the game, given the charge he already has against him for calling overweight referee Alan Wiley unfit, although of course has spoken about the massive errors made by young and inexperienced referee Andre Marriner.
“The laws of the game were altered to prevent professional fouls of that nature,” said Ferguson of the foul on Owen. “If Carragher goes off – their best player, their captain – then it’s a different game and Liverpool would have been under pressure. And as far as I’m concerned, Michael Carrick should have had a clear penalty kick. Jamie Carragher’s gone over the top of the ball. If it’s outside the box it’s a free-kick and maybe even a yellow card but it was inside the box and nothing was given.”
i know we played shit and didnt deserve a win but if we got that pen then we cud of changed momentum, even early in the game it was clear peter andre marriner was scouse,i mean roon must av been an inch offside but you sumtimes get them,1 up after 2mins and there heads would have been up there arses instead of ours! nobody was there to compete,must have thought just walkin on pitch would win it. BIG QUESTIONS to be asked in training this week- rio n vidic- do yous like lookin like schoolboys when you play shitty dick ladyboy?
midfield- wernt even there, the holes without fletch and hargo is disgracefull,weak,
and 60 mil forward line were bullshit yesterday.
very dissapointed but LOVE THIS CLUB so saf get em kicked into touch this week and please get your chequebook out in january,please
Gotta say I don’t think United played that bad yesterday. We were beaten, fair enough but it wasn’t a truly worrying performance. Ferdinand and Vidic had a decent game (with the exception of the goal – from the best out and out striker around – and Vidic’s second yellow, but that was more down to sloppy control in midfield).
We missed Fletcher, but I’m surprised that in his absence Fergie played Carrick. Anderson while no where near what we expect of him yet would have at least added some steel to the midfield – he gets stuck in which is what was needed. I’m struggling to see what Carrick brings to the game nowadays other than: 1. Pass to Scholes 2. Back off from making a tackle.
On the plus side I thought Owen looked really good when he came on, making great runs and getting into good positions. Also I reckon Valencia is starting to show why we bought him and was unlucky not to score.
Berbatov looked again but I’m afraid that against a top defence he and Rooney don’t have that ability to penetrate the defence. The only time we did it yesterday was when Owen was on (and he was promptly brought down). Which brings me to the ref. Not gonna say much about it except that he was shocking. I’m not sure that if he was better it would have changed the result as the dippers deserved their win, but he was fucking shit. How Lucas wasn’t booked I’ll never know.
Its easier for Fergie to pint the finger of blame at the ref, than to admit his own team selection was completely wrong.
He needs to look at that midfield before Chelsea and Anderson and Fletcher must start.
Why are people going on about Diuof? The lad will be lucky to get a subs shirt when he arrives, he’s not first team ready and not United class.
The same with Tosic, he’snot good enought to compete at Prem League level as hes not strong enough or good enough.
I thought Vidic was shocking. He has not played well all season. Does he want out? Hansen, last evening on Match of the Day, suggested that he was frightened of Torres. He certainly gave me that opinion. But has Ferdinand got other problems at the moment? He is playing and acting just like he did when he was suspended for avoiding that drug test. His mind is elsewhere. he has to be rested.
It is time Fergie gave an extended period in defence to Johnny Evans and also, in the January window, buy an experienced centre half. Let’s face it he could get Campbell for nowt and he is very dependable. For a couple of seasons whilst his young studs are getting ready Campbell would fit the bill.
Also I am afraid we need a centre forward and watching West Ham their man Cole is the man for Man U! Big Strong, direct. He would play really well with Owen and Rooney. It would be a magical combination.
The Berbatov experiment failed!
Love the blog.
Why are we so aneamic in these big away games? We play like a bottom half club whenever we go to Anfield. The ref being a joke aside, we were just not very good. It was like watching the Barca game again in parts and it does my head in.
Is it a lack of sirit in the team? I think it might be – we don’t have a real captain who can give everyone a boot up the arse when required.
Who is our captian anyway? GNeville? Rio? Giggsy? Far from ideal isn’t it…
really poor spelling today. I of course meant “spirit” and “captain”.
Spineless, gutless, lackluster, devoid of any idea’s i cud go on. I felt sorry for our fans yesterday, they turned up again but the players didn’t and i ave to ask bar scholesy, giggsy, wes and red nev do the rest of the players feel it the way we do. ps carrick and scholes done an amazing thing yesterday they made lucas look world class, and without a doubt torres is the best forward in europe
i cant understand how people can say “chelsea have the league sewn up”…
We are two points behind them. dont be fucking rediculous.
United and chelsea will battle till the end for this title but there is no way any one can call it now…LIVERPOOL STAND NO CHANCE!!! they turn up for the big games and lose it in lesser games.
Yes we lost yesterday, as we did in the corresponding fixture last season. But the lads will get up and go at it even harder now. Its a blessing in disguise.
UNITED NEVER DIE!
Suck my beachball nuts you fucking dipper wankers!
Good morning on the day after.
First, the ref was certainly not at his best. There is something called persistent infringement and Lucas was guilty of that in a big way yet nothing was called. Same for their argie. Should have been a pen for Owen but Berb was lucky he was not caught for his foul on Kuyt even though the cunt had a handful of his shirt. Point being, the ref missed the obvious ones.
Second, the mids were not at their best and provided not muscle and fire to get the rest of the team stoked up. You needed the passion to come from some place and a couple of well timed, gut wrenching tackles would have done the trick.
Third, Torres is a class player. Got his one chance and scored. Can’t argue that. What you can argue is that Evra looked gassed by that point as didn’t close down benyoun quick enough before he got the pass off. Perhaps the trip to CSKA (a win btw), was a little longer than some remembered.
Fourth, we live to fight another day and we will prevail. One game does not a season make although you could not tell that from the dippers reaction.
Missed Fletch a lot, methinks.
Carrick is not good enough… Ando should of started…. Hargreves and Flechter are missed something bad…. Fuck the ref, we knew scummypool would bee getting a lot of home team calls… we just did not play well at all and got what we deserved.. i hope hope SAF let rip at them all for playing with no heart but i’d say he is also asking himself why? but hopefully as the saying is “you learn more in defeat than in victory”…
Just a thought. SAF should have Ferdinand monitored 24.7. He is worrying me.
time has come where fergie gives the likes of tosic,macheda and da silvas to play.sorry to say but i am sick of seeing o shea play like i was sick of park.o shea is the most overrated player atleast in defence.ando should play now.
valencia can improve eventhough yesterday i said he isnt fit for united.
vds and berba were the only positive from yesterdays game.
BigPhil @ 10:58 – I’d forgotten about Valencia’s near-miss. Thanks for reminding me – that would have changed the game. But it wouldn’t have changed the weakness that the Scholes/Carrick midfield combination showed against pressing opponents. These two can only play well together – or individually, for that matter – against a team that gives them time/space.
i dont think that was a pen. it would be very harsh. i do think that that illiterate(interview after the game) cunt should have bee sent off for the owen thing. disgraceful
roadkill4U @ 12:49 – you’re half-right that Evra was missing-in-action when Benayoun moved the ball to Torres for the goal. Evra was actually down by the L’poo goal-line for most of the match – he’s a terrific attacking player, who links brilliantly with the winger ahead/beside him, but Patrice’s not really a defensive “full back”. We can’t have it both ways – he can be counted on as a small full back or a dynamic attacking force; I know that I’m happy with what he offers in the latter role and we just have to accept that that reduces his defensive effectiveness (which ain’t great, to be honest).
On the bright side – those loss in points will probably not be the difference between winning and losing the league. Also other potental title contenders arsenal, spurs, city and villa did not have best weekend themselves. Add to that looking more closely at the losses that liverpool and chelsea have gotton this season and our record does not look so bad. The good news is that we do have the time and the points to an extent to get a much needed kick up the back side so we can hopefully take advantage from this hard lesson in the coming weeks. Plus the rest of the pl is now stronger (not weaker like papers are suggesting as if you look at chelsea apart from the change in manager they aren’t technically weaker (the 18 month ban in buying in new players won’t probably hit them too badly till next summer) meaning if you use them as a static benchmark for the pl in comparing the pl in the 08/09 season and this season imo any team in the pl could give any european club team trouble on their day) so everyone will lose points again throughout the season and hopefully chelsea and liverpool are having a delay in the top pl team bad fortune of this weekend and it will hopefully hit them next weekend instead!
Roadkill ur name is strangely similar to my e-mail address.
The only thing i could take as a positive was valencia starting to look more and more united worthy. He was one of the better players and unlucky not to score
di – IF UTD can get to 85/90 points then they will win the EPL by at least five points.
@ denton davey – by my maths going on our pl results so far we should be finishing on around 83/84 pts (though before yesterday’s result it worked out as a much more pleasant 92/93 pts!) so I think for sure utd will finish near the top, most likely somewhere in the top 4 but because of the unpredictable and the increase of strength in the pl compared to last yrs comp i think that less pts than usual will be needed to win this yrs and will unlikely be decided on head to head against the big 4 this yr. The great thing about our league is that many teams, not just the big 4 can win this league this yr and no matchup between 2 pl teams can actually be called, as many of the so called lesser teams in the pl (non big 4) have got it in their heads that this is the official david vs Goliath season, therefore there are probably still more ’scratch of the head’ results to come – i just hope it happens to liverpool and chelsea rather then ourselves, thats all!
di – For all the hype there are only two teams equipped to win the league. Us and the rentboys. The others are some way short in terms of quality, depth and experience.
As we all know other clubs view United as their biggest fixture. There’s been a tendency in recent years to attach a meeting with us as an opportunity to “turn things around” for many on top of the usual one-off game-raising aspect United always face.
This was such a match for Liverpool – again – and that’s the real issue either their fans are unaware of or are afraid to acknowledge.
As happened last season United will, when it truly matters, get the results they need in the sense that setbacks like Sunday’s are rendered inconsequential to the wider achievements.
Yep, it’s Liverpool and it hurts more but with reference to what I said in the first paragraph above, remember this.
Benitez’s Liverpool are victims of his management in that, in the long game of winning the Premiership, you are guaranteed intermittent periods where they need to “turn things around”. It is a fundamental flaw highlighting why, I believe anyway, he will never win the English Premiership.
He offers Liverpool fans that psychological trap-door of hope above and anguish below. In Premiership title terms with Benitez in charge they’ll always be standing on it.
King Eric:
I think you’re totally right. For two fundamental reasons. Firstly, at the start of every season we have the ripe-for-picking media agenda of who might break the stranglehold of “the top four”. Naturally this provides copy for most of any given season. But the top four isn’t the top two, something the press avoid having to acknowledge is easier to predict, even this time around.
Secondly, I believe Liverpool got as close last time as they ever will under Benitez. Chelsea are in better shape than last season and have genuine quality. Ironically for all the leapers on the no-Ronaldo bandwagon, United love a real scrap for the Premiership especially at the “business end”.
If it IS as unpredictable this season as many say it’ll suit United down to ground.
Well the question of where Rafa’s transfer money goes has certainly been answered.
Ref walked away with a very nice packet after that disgraceful performance.