The football was nothing to write home about in 2008-2009 but in terms of excitement and nerves, it was one of the best seasons for years. As usual, we were fighting it out for the title, but this time it was against our hated rivals, Liverpool.
United were a few matches behind everyone else at the turn of the year after taking time out to compete in and win the FIFA World Club Cup. By the time we returned, Liverpool were at the top of the table. Then one afternoon, Rafael Benitez flipped his lid, went to a match day press conference with a piece of paper with ‘facts’ about Sir Alex Ferguson and set us up for a fantastic end to the season.
That weekend, Liverpool drew 0-0 at Stoke and United beat Chelsea 3-0, moving five points behind Benitez’s team, but with two games in hand. Four months later we equalled their record of 18 league titles.
The following season, Liverpool finished 7th, 22 points behind United, and Benitez left the club by “mutual consent”, although reportedly settled for a £6m pay out by the club.
Benitez then inherited Jose Mourinho’s Treble winning Inter Milan team but was sacked a few months in to the job after falling 13 points behind AC Milan in the league. He has been out of work since but that hasn’t dampened his feelings for our manager.
Ahead of today’s game against Liverpool, Benitez was asked about the importance of Sir Alex Ferguson in United’s recent dominance. Hilariously, the Spaniard claimed our 12 league titles, 2 European Cups, 5 FA Cups and 4 League Cups are not a product of Ferguson’s genius, rather the money we have spent.
“No, I think it’s the money they were spending,” he said. “If you analyse the transfer record and the history, Rooney, or Ferdinand, for example, £30 million for a young player or a centre back. Every year they are very well-off. It’s not just because of the interviews or the press conferences; it’s because they had money.”
It won’t come as a surprise to you that this statement is as factual as his loony rant back in 2009. Benitez spent £301m on gross transfers over six years at Liverpool, recouping £144m. During the same period of time, Fergie spent £231m and recouped £178m.
Liverpool fans would argue that Benitez had to rebuild the squad, which explains why he spent more money, even if that does little to support Benitez’s claims that we were the club spending all the money. Still, if you look at the five years before Benitez got the Liverpool job, the spending is comparable.
Stats from AndersRed
Regardless, if Ferguson’s personality doesn’t come in to United’s success, if it’s just down to money, you would be under the impression that United have spent more than any other club, right? Wrong, obviously.
Stats from Transfer League
He’s cracking up, he’s cracking up, he’s cracking, Rafa’s cracking up!
Man Utd News 24/7
Once a knob, always a knob I guess. I still laugh thinking about his excuses when he couldn’t make a squad that had just won the treble perform.
now compare the number of players Liverpool brought in with those money. The difference was United spend 30millions on each first team player, and Liverpool used to spend 10-12m on each first team player and another 5m on sub players.
His bitter comedic genius is worthy of City. Would love to see them two get together. Imagine the hilarity that would ensue. On another note, what sort of pathetic cunt wouldn’t acknowledge the greatest manager of all time? Just makes him look petty and insane. And as clearly shown here, the money excuse doesn’t stand up Rafa. You’re just a fat spanish waiter who got lucky with Valencia, then you showed the world how “brilliant” you really are. 6 months at treble winning Inter Milan says it all.
MUFC……19
I thought Liverpool fans were obsessed with Benitez but it looks like you Mancs and your manager are still affected by the Spaniard too. Who was a good manager and still has Fergie smarting.
Cedars
Cheers buddy, and I’ve missed the banter with you guys. Funny, a good experience for your nephew to experience first hand I guess, help him build up an immune system to it. I do however, hope you’ve managed to convert the young man since then! ha ha!
bobbycharlie1968
Not much to add to be honest…. Well said!
Calling it right now: Rafa Benitez replaces Roberto Mancini at the end of the season. That way, all the clowns are gathered together in one place. Gosh, I will be praying till all eternity for it to happen. Reading Cyril’s episodes about City with Benitez at the helm would be pure gold. Please, Mansoor, make it happen for old time’s sake!
Rafa is mad. End of. .
Mikekelly
He is almost 30, so not that young anymore! I tried with him and failed hahaha He lives and works in the UK and fair to say we do exchange a handful of football related text messages, non more so then this past week leading up for today’s game….
Balaji
Hope it happens, that would be pure comedy gold!
Liverpools success in the CL final 2005 mainly based on the players of Houlliers tenure as manager ! Didn’t he wring another great pay off out of Inter . Deluded , Narsasistic,meglomaniac you get the picture. I doubt he would of made a good waiter , he would be telling people what to eat and drink !!
It’d be interesting to see how the numbers stacked up if you look at the last decade only. I imagine CFC and Shitty would be even further ahead.
Cedars
Ha ha…I had pictures of a young kid wrapped up with a footy scarf with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop!! Well, we can’t all be blessed with that inner glow of Manchester United. All we can do is pray for these poor souls and hope the pain of following their teams is not too dibilitating.
Butterflies are starting to round up now ready for attack!!
wiuru
You’re right pal, he’d be a shit waiter. He’d be working at a Wolfgang Puck or Gordan Ramsay restaurant saying, “Nar, the chefs here are shit, its just because they buy really expensive ingredients. I kould make a better duck parfait if you gave me enough money” He becomes head chef and Yep, you guessed it, his restaurant closed down after 6 months!!
You got to love Anders Lindegaard. He just tweeted: “Had pasta bolognese this morning at 9. Top 3 worst meals on a hopefully top 3 best day! #believe” – Modern football definitely needs more players like him IMO.
Mikekelly
Tell me about them butterflies pal! 2 hours to go now
We should NOT lose this one… Come on UNITED
Lol these dippers ,Bitters,Gooners and chelski’s say we are successful because we buy players and the next day the same set of donkeys say that we cannot buy players because we are in debt.
They always contradict themselves according to their comfort.
Welbeck to start today? Here is one that might start a debate, Lambert for United?
Reason I mentioned Lambert is he reminds me of a young Sir Alex….
Ash – Hilarious
Fuck Liver poo Fuck Rafa, Come on you Reds. I’m fucking pumped
slim
Makes two of us!
@Cedars, I have this sneaky feeling Sir Alex may opt for the more safer and trusted 4-5-1 with Rooney up top. I’ve personally always felt that this formation brings out the worst in Rooney because he becomes frustrated at his isolation at the front. But Sir Alex has preferred this for Europe and most top-4 away games in the past few seasons, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes with a MF 3 or Carrick-Fletcher (or Giggs)-Anderson. I still don’t know what’s the deal with Tom, so I doubt he will be given a start in this game. Young has built up a great understanding with Rooney, so we can see him playing off Wayneboy when we go forward. However, that is just what I feel personally. I’ve given up on predicting the entire lineups altogether since I know I will always be made to look like a fool in the end.
Balaji
We all look like fools trying to predict line ups vs Sir Alex! To be honest I do not care about line ups or formations for this match, its United vs Liverpool…. Whichever 11 reds are out there should just do the bloody job
Jeez the guy is an idiot.now everyone knows he has a personal vendetta agnst saf.imagine players(raul,figo etc),greats(gazza,zizou,giggs)managers(anceloti,mourinho,mankini)all saying what saf is to man utd only 4 ths goat 2 say othawise.everyone has to be laughing at him
CedarsDevil
damn straight buddy, hell more like a million around the globe, come on you Reds
i hope fergie picks the right team today we need energy in the middle so i’ll go for ando,fletch and carrick
slim
I said this before, no game makes me more pumped up than this one…. Throw in a CL final in that phrase!
Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh !! Any win, any bleedin win please then we can enjoy the rest of the weekend and watch the other results roll in!!!!
Either of flecther or carrick should start.I don’t want both of them starting as it would make our team slow.Same way only one from Park and giigs should be starting.I love both of them but as we saw in Wembley defeat against barca we become slow when we play all of them together.
I won’t predict the score or the team as I have full faith in My team manchester united.
Just a bit over 60 minutes to go….. Wish I was there, would be already screaming my lungs out
Fuck the obese twat. No self respecting club wants anything to do with him anymore.
Heard rumours Rooney is on the bench?
What a complete Tosser !
Hope the fat bastard is struck down with Diabetes,High Cholesterol, Back to Back Heart Attacks & Then a Stroke in his Recovery. Bloody Bellend !
50 minutes to go
Willie
What? Mind you nothing surprises me from the boss if that is the case
Carroll on the bench. Damn, I was hoping Kenny wouldn’t do that.
Steven Gerrard is going to start against United #Fact :Hope henderson starts !
Rooney only on the bench!
Wtf?!
Fleetwood Mac told me about Rooney.
Wow. Rooney doesn’t start.
Team: De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Park, Fletcher, Giggs, Jones, Young, Welbeck
De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Park, Fletcher, Giggs, Jones, Young, Welbeck
No Vidic, Nani only on the Bench.
Jones in midfield.
fuck that will be as tough as fuck.
What a bizarre team. Nani and Rooney both benched.
Jones in midfiield I guess. And I was giving someone on here two barrels yesterday for suggesting that should happen.
Where’s Jones playing? Not surprised by Rooney only on the bench.
De Gea, Evra, Jones, Ferdinand, Evans, Giggs, Smalling, Park, Young, Welbeck, Fletcher.
Jones in midfield? My dreams have come true!
45 MINS TO GO. ADRENALINE RUSH, THIS IS IT. THE GAME OF THE SEASON SO FAR. COME ONNNNNN UNITED!!! DESTROY THE SCOUSERS.
Time to release the BERB.
We need to hold onto the ball, especially up front. I miss the class, the sublime touch of of Dimi.
Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Enrique, Carragher, Skrtel, Lucas, Adam, Gerrard, Downing, Kuyt, Suarez
Sir Alex is a genius
that team really baffles me.
Trick selection.I would have loved to see nani starting.Had a feeling rooney will be benched.Good decision by sir alex.
Testing time for Jones.Why isn’t Ando starting instead of fletch or giggs?
I still feel we will win.
JONES IN MIDFIELD!!! YESSSSS. come on young Phil Show us what you’re made of.
Arry is starting to really piss me off, move for Rio? As if
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/969429/harry-redknapp-plays-down-rio-ferdinand-rumours?cc=5739
That team Fergie has picked, looks disjointed. No Nani either? Very strange. I hope we’ve got it right this time. I’m more concerned now, than I was before I seen the team. Anyway, that’s the side he’s chosen. Lets get the 3 points! Big day for Jones in CM. Not the place, to experiment, I would’ve thought…
Off to watch the build up and the game….
Later friends
Very Shocked at Our Line Up;
—————-De Gea—————-
Smalling—-Rio—–Evans—-Evra
——–Fletcher——-Jones——–
Park ———–Giggs——–Young
——————Welbeck ————–
Bench; Rooney,Nani, Chico !
Risky line up, a lot of pressure on Welbeck ton take on 2 centre backs by himself.
vs
————–Reina—————-
Kelly—Carra—–Skrtel—Enrique
———Lucas—-Adam———
Kuty ———Gerrard——–Downing
————–Suarez———————-
bench!!??
wait so i’m just trying to figure out how we will play.
DDG- GK.
Smalling- RB
Rio- CB
Evans-CB
Evra-LB
Jones- DM
Fletch CM
Giggs CM
Park- RM
Young-LM
Welbz-CF.
COME ON UNITED. weird line up but i’m fine with it. if this is the line up that gets us our first win at anfailed in 3 yrs then i’m cool with it. Hopefully welbeck is up for this like a Junkie.
United will steamroll liverpool today. Jones to score today.
Looks like I was right about Evans,Park,Giggs playing !
Phil Jones will become Duncan Edwards today.
You heard it here first!
LOL bbc’s Phil Mcnulty. “General Amazement at Anfield at the United Line-up is produced.” No rooney No Nani No vidic. Three of our best players. I’m assuming Fergie first wants to figure out what Liverpool are doing in the first half and then unleash Roo and Nani.
Bench; Lindeguardian, Valencia,Ando, Rooney, Nani, Chico , Carrick
Tsk Tsk so it’s confirmed then were playing for an nil nil.This could end badly.
Not sure what it says about Carrick? We give him a new contract last season. Now, he’s edged out in favour of Jones. What a bench we have though! Plenty of options there me thinks. Lets hope we don’t need them.
FFS im shivering in excitement,fear,nervousness & because the heating is broke
At least I got the 4-5-1 right, lol. Other than that, I really don’t know what to make of this line up. A lot of unnecessary tinkering imo. I get why Vidic and Chicha aren’t starting given injuries and travels, but why the hell are Nani and Rooney on the bench? I’d really hate to think that the latter is being protected from the Anfield crowd. That’s the same kind of bs we pulled at the start of last season. Also, I’d experiment with Jones in midfield in a less difficult game than this, but that’s just me. At least Park is starting. His first ever start at Anfield.
This lineup appears very respectful of Liverpool. Hold them out for 70 minutes then bring on Rooney and Nani to finish the job?
looks like Berbatov is now officially a Carling Cup player.
Is Rooney really that thick and fucked up in the head he can’t be trusted,fucking stupid.If Utds best player can’t start against our biggest rivals because the crowd might get to him? really you have to be fucking joking
Im not going to lie, it seems we’re going for a;
” Hold on till half time”
” See if we’ve got to their heads after their break”
“Get whatever we can before the final whistle, be it draw or a winner”
well we shouldn’t forget that we HAVE to win in romania and then get the better of the berties.
PJ in midfield! Bring it on!
With Rooney on the bench, Berbatov is the fall guy. I just hope we attack the dippers and don’t sit back. That would prove to be a disaster. We can’t encourage Liverpool onto us. Use Danny’s pace, but give him the proper support when we can.
Any streams yet ?
@Wayne
– The crowd will be insulting Rooney all game, he’ll get wound up, over work himself, taunt the scum, lash our & get booked -
SAF is protecting him, the same goes for Nani – he was bullied last year and put in an aweful performance.
I would have preferred Valencia over Park to give some width, but Park is a big game player and Valencia has travelled from South America recently.
What is this line up? I thought my eyes were somehow deceiving me when I saw the team sheet. Ferguson is MAD. Desperately hoping this turns out to be another unexpected result like the one against the Arse when we played the twins on the wings.
No rooney and Nani has already put a dent on my fantasy team. Oh well, a win is the most important thing.
COME ON UNITED.
We’re expecting a lot from Jones & Welbeck…they have to remain disciplined & Focused.
the last time rooney was benched for fear of abuse it turned out that he actually wanted to leave.
baffling decision though ,he did not have a game in midweek(unlike nani) so should have started.
wth is up with berba?not even on the bench?
It is a WTF line up , but people please Wazza haters can all fuck off.
Wayne – It’s been taken out of his hands mate. There’s no way Rooney told Fergie he doesn’t want to play at anfield.
COME ON UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!
@Clint Rooney makes $200k a week and is a Pro Footballer,he has to learn to deal with the pressure can’t keep ‘protecting him’ the lad isn’t a baby he’s 25,its fucking stupid,why are Utd paying him all this money if he’s a fuck up that can’t handle pressure,Surely the team wants their best player for the biggest games.
I’m getting fucking sick of Utd bending over backwards,treating him like a baby,protecting him,whatever words someone wants to use,its a fucking joke,if Rooney can’t handle crowd pressure shouldn’t be playing football for a living.
Fergie has done Berbatov a favor by playing 4-4-2 this season and having 2 strikers on the bench. But that wasn’t going to go on forever sadly and there was no reason to have 3 strikers on the bench today. It’s sad what it’s come down to, but not unexpected.
@wayne
That’s what I am wondering too mate. Rooney had a full week’s rest. There’s no reason for him not to start this game. He’s 26 ffs. He shouldn’t be protected like he’s still 19.
Look there is only one person i am feeling REALLY nervous about. that is welbeck. he simply HAS to be at his best today. Fletcher as well. Rooney and NAni just came back from int’l duty. Nani played two games in 3 days. Rooney’s case is baffling but he’s the manager and i have faith in him. JUST START THIS FUCKING GAME ALREADY. COME ONNN UNITED.
ROONEY ALWAYS GETS SHIT EVEN HERE, FROM SO SAID FANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BE UNITED, BELIEVE, GO UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucking Yank who supports United just Called us Man.You….someone needs to remind that cunt !
It was just on Sky Sports 2.
WOW….. the ultimate Jeddi playing superior mind games….
BELIEVE!!
Looks like a 4_2_3_1….
Will be interesting to see who plays behind welbeck…giggs or young?
And if fucking starts the game, then gets sent off? Let him watch from the sidelines. He ain’t bigger than the club. Hence, he’s benched. come on United!!
BELIEVE !
If we get anything out of the game today with that lineup then I think SAF should be ennobled tonight rather than waiting till new years day.
Had enough time to grab a bite for lunch. Came back and read the team sheet and I am feeling like I haven’t eaten at all.
See what I meant about not predicting Sir Alex’s team lineup.
I always personally believe Sir Alex knows best and I would imagine he has a plan behind this absurd lineup.
See you folks at half time, hopefully with some good news.
anyone got a link, PLEASE !!
x
Zibbie not a question of giving Rooney shit mate obviously there’s something wrong with his mental makeup if he can’t be trusted for the biggest game of the season.Needs to get sorted,maybe go see a shrink or something.Every fucking fan in the country will be on his case every game now,leaving him out is the worst possible decision now theres a target on his back untill he can prove he’s mature enough to deal with the pressure,simple as.
at least we are not wearing white today
Great start from Evra. Just thought I’d say it as he’s been getting some stick recently. Keep it up Paddy!
Regardless of what the result is today, I hate the fact that we don’t go into one of the biggest games of the season without our best players. That is a serious issue of concern for me – that we don’t seem to think the likes of Rooney and Nani are up to the job, and that the likes of Ando can’t be trusted in midfield. Really disappointing line up – a few tactical changes are fine, but changes like this I don’t get or approve of, whatever the result.
Is Park playing? Anonymous
Ugly game till now
In SAF we trust!! This will turn out like DiSilvas playing the wings in FA Cup against arsenal
welbeck can’t keep hold of the ball, he is not a lone striker
Just realized i fucking hate these games against Liverpool at anfield
Park
What kind of fucken line up is that…might as well forfeit and tell dalglish he is god.
Come on lads, we should be winning this.
Can anyone tell me why Fletcher did not pass to unmarked Young but took a wild shot?!
Rio has been SUPERB at the back. Showing why he is far from done. But yes our play need an injection of quickness and more directness. STEP FORWARD NANI AND WAYNE ROONEY.
great work by Rio and Evra so far…..need rooney and nani for some creativity now in the 2nd half.
Valencia for Park
Rooney for Jones or Welbeck
Nani for Young
No spark up front, Rio + Evra have been world class. Fletch has done well. Jones is 2nd striker
Giggs is failing to see the simple passes today, C’mon Giggsy !
Park is either doing something funny or completely out of the game, Enrique is too much for him.
Welbeck + Young are doing the best they can with no support, Jones surprisingly is not passing like he does from defence which is not really his fault because Park ain’t doing much on his right.
Suarez is a diver and a handful but Rio has had him in his pocket so far.
never has been a game at anfield where we fucking pass our way to victory.when did ronaldo ever have a good game there? just keep battling away get our top players on in last 20 mins and who knows? take a draw here and lets just fuck off home!!!
Personally I don’t blame Rooney for being benched one bit. This is all on Fergie and his reluctance to trust him. It is a bit sad however. Imagine if we took the similar approach when Ronnie was hearing boos every fucking week in 06-07. I hope this is the last time he gets benched for a bullshit reason like this.
Onto the game. Our defence looks a lot more solid today than it has all season. However, that came at a price and sadly our attacking play has been pretty toothless so far. When your 2 best chanes are long range efforts from Fletcher and Park that sums it up. Sir Alex obviously plans to steal it in the 2nd half with Rooney and Nani coming on. Lets hope we get that chance before Liverpool score…
Plan A progressing well so far.
Like I said earlier Giggs and park together slow down the game very much.I completely agree with Mahesh.Dropping Ando isn’t a good sign.No one is questioning the Master sir alex but this line up is not great.
Jones has been energetic,could have got a goal with that header.
Our defence has also been good.The problem is mid field.Fletcher is anonymous and is playing in a mediocre fashion.Park did an ok job and so did young.
Welbeck has struggled but can’t blame the boy.He can’t play on his own.We have an advantage going in second half.Our bench is great.
If I were a liverpool supporter I would be disappointed for not leading the game.
BELIEVE
Wayne well said.
My words , but my brother typed it. Getting ready for the game in my 5th wheel my brother was reading some posts out load and I did say that while brushing my teeth, I did not know it was your post. You have played the game at a high level and I understand how you feel and I respect your insight.
GO UNITED !!!!!!!!!!!!
0-0 A PLUS.
Don’t know what to think of that. But surely the fact that we haven’t conceded is a good thing.
Defensively we are solid, in the sense that I personally can’t see Liverpool scoring because they are so shit. But the lack of attacking play is worrying. How on earth are we supposed to win this game if we cant even firstly retain the ball and then do something productive with it.. Welbeck is a hardworking player, that I totally admire, but expecting him to chase after long balls is tiring and totally predictable. Fletcher shouldn’t be starting, simple as. I have been closely following his progress and he is obviously not 100% fit yet. I would rather Ando comes on.
In contrary to many in here, for me Jones is not the answer to our midfield problems, and I am certainly not happy about SAF decision to play him there. Phil Jones lacks the composure and technical ability to become a good DF/CM. His first touch isn’t the greatest and his ball control is nothing to write about. He is a defender, a good one at that so why not play him there?
Young and Welbeck tried to create something, but it just wont happen until a change is made.
Liverpool for all their passing are so awfully average. United should be more than capable of beating them today.
Sky sports has been improved with the presence of our Red Nev, he brings so much to the table plus forces those Cunts to watch what they say about United or he will bite their heads off !
Hope Jones is ok,
Well back into the cabin and watch the game and listen to fucking McCuntaCunt!
I am on vacation and just got high and have a bloody mary!!!!!
So far, the game plan of priority being given to defensive containment rather than open-ended attacking seems to be going along perfectly. Liverpool have had only two clear chances and only the Suarez one was really threatening. The energy from our MF has allowed them little space to work with and it looks like Sir Alex is going to be happy with a point so far.
However, I don’t think Jones in MF has worked at all. He has looked a bit lost at times and has often moved out of position and not really covered anybody from Liverpool’s MF. This has given them some space to work with. Although I will say that he has picked out a neat little pass here and there, there hasn’t been anything to suggest that he could do this job full time. Of course, not judging the boy based on one performance in a tough away fixture. Also Jones & Park seem to be playing similar roles at the moment involving breaking up their play.
To be fair to Danny, he hasn’t looked totally lost. Whenever he has had a chance to turn his man and run at the LPool defense, he has looked terrific. The substitution of Rooney may just allow him more freedom to work with.
And it looks like great man-management once again from Sir Alex. Rooney would’ve been eaten alive in the first half because their fans would’ve been fired up at kick off. Consequently, that might’ve forced Wayneboy to do something stupid as well. Keeping him on the bench in the first half could turn out be a brilliant move – Rooney will be fired up to make a statement when he comes on and Pool fans might’ve become subdued by then as well.
I feel this game is there for the taking. Their team is mediocre at best and had we had our first XI playing, we might’ve ripped them apart a new one. They can’t even get anything on our defensive lineup. Rooney and Nani to come on and hopefully we can nick the 3 pts.
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/878685-devastated-wayne-rooney-left-out-of-liverpool-v-manchester-united?
Ahm, Rio was devastated after his 8 month ban but he started at Spurs didn’t he? Lets hope dear Wayne is over his devastation by Tuesday.
Hope Jones is ok. He’s struggled on the ball a bit, he doesn’t have the space that he is used to when he brings it forward from the back, but he’s doing a good job on Charlie Adam defensively.
He has won trophies for his game face alone
He bowls overhand
He is the most interesting man in the world, now please bring on rooney and nani.
no changes at half time
Jones should really be sitting back instead of trying to man mark adams..
need to get at least two of Anderson, Nani and Rooney on ASAP!!
that what Rooney got a red card for last week
who ever that is commentatin on sky is so fuckin biased towards us..all hes done is put our players down and pointed out ever mistake and praise the scouse c*nts
This is turning into a complete waste of time, hope SAF has some surprise in store for us…
giggs and park need to come off, both ineffective right now. people keep saying jones is a midfield player, no he isnt. just because he makes marauding runs does not make him a centre midfield player, you need to be tactically aware, have good positioning, intelligent and good passing, however he is a quality young centre half.
We can’t keep the ball and as usual pool are playing their skins out in their cup final.
FFs… bull shit match and bull shit tactics
And they have scored.. brilliant.
giggs moved out of the wall, why on earth did he do that….
gerrard scores, does the five fingers, kisses the badge….what a cunt.
adam dives, gerrard scores from free kick. normality at anfield
Gerrard can hold up the 5 all he likes, we have 19. And he took part in one of those. Giggs won 12 of the 19 and 2 of our 3 European cups.
players need to be careful, too many on yellow cards and cant afford to miss the city game. evra, rio, young etc
We went there for a 0-0, the referee has taken his chance now we are going to lose.
Too negative.
Playing like f**kin pussies
Playing like f**kin pussies
Since Fletcher started to play for first team we are f***ed.
We didn’t deserve anything from this game.To many players playing out of depth.
F**k $)(#%&#$
HE HE HE
don’t see united getting back in this, its as simple as that. take the defeat and move on to city.
Come on u beauty… U should be playing
What a bloody save…. He is already a great
CHICHARITO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the king of good times.. now thats more like it
Let’s kill them with a second goal now!
FFS I have the same feeling as I did when Barthez and Silvestre played for United.Fear…
WHAT THE HELL IS FERGIE UPTO?!
Top scoring team in the league, yet we play negative every away game against the top half teams in the league! Negativity is gonna cost us the league this year, and thats not a joke. If we play like this for the remainder of the season away from home then City will be lifting the trophy in May, and they’d be deserving of it too.
Proper blood boiling seeing that team sheet and the way weve played today, just think Fergie needs to change his stubborn ways and go for the jugular every time against the top teams. Id rather we get beat fighting than standing back inviting attack after attack onto ourselves.
And as I write this Hernandez has scored and thats what we needed to do from the off, we should beat this bunch of average so and so’s that are called Liverpool home and away this season!
And Evra needs to sort himself out too, first half was awesome, second half has become lazy and lax!
Please Fergie just stick to the Sir Matt Busby’s philosophy and attack ffs, not this european shit of sitting back waiting!
@prasac STFU and enjoy the game.. or bugger of to a liverpool blog
@rohan Calm down. What I did to provoke you ?
DDG is a fucking solid keeper. thats a quality player there
yeah de gea is our questionmark.
dig that
we were lucky…
Never mind Benitez………
Suarez is a diving cunt……….. Fact
They were there for taking, but our negative tactics cost us today. Rooney and Nani should have come on much earlier!
Shit shit shit shit shit. Nuff said
We have to thank Chicharito and especially De Gea for this point.
How good was De Gea in those dying moments?
There were some De Gea haters spouting nonsense in the opening weeks and calling him shit and all that. I don’t see any one them praising the lad in the past few weeks. That kind of hypocrisy is what I hate the most. I could name all those idiots, but don’t see the point in it. De Gea is the reason we are still unbeaten in this league. This was evident in the past few weeks, but again beautifully highlighted today with some of the stupendous saves he pulled off. Hats off to DDG!
I thought we could’ve been more assertive towards the end, but Rooney was forced too much into our own half. Giggs was to blame for their goal. What the fuck was he doing moving away from the wall like that? That is an indefensible mistake given his experience in football. Absolutely shocking from our senior-most player.
Oh, and right now, Phil Jones is definitely not a mid-fielder. Not even close. Not slating the lad, but this was not a game for us to try him out in MF. There will be a slew of lower-placed teams to give him a MF run out, but I don’t think this was such a game. Carrick might’ve proved better for the kind of game we played today.
Overall, given the team we started out with, 1 point is not a disaster. Sir Alex got exactly what he wanted. I imagine he will go all out next week for the 3 points which will keep us ahead of City. City also have a difficult game today against an unbeaten Villa, we’ll see what happens there.
However, and here’s a friendly suggestion from one fan, next time lets go there with out strongest possible lineup hey? I doubt Fergie would have uised such a negative line up at the Camp Nou. Who the hell are Liverpool to deserve so much respect?
@Balaji
Right. I wouldn’t call Jones’ first outing as a CM for us a success either.
We need to find midfielder who will play vertically. Fletcher is to static with his left-right short passing.Therefore our game improved once Rooney came in.
i AM More than happy with the draw.Our line up didn’t work out but our players gave 100%.
David de gea is man of the match.Absolutely great keeping from this lad.Now that should keep the doubters out.
Now lets win against galati in mid week and then win against shitty.
I’m just a little furious, not with our players but with our management for that starting lineup – We could have ripped them a new one if we went with our best players from the start, I think. Its simple really – if we don’t think our best players can give us a better chance that our second string (old/young uns), then what the hell are they they for? I supported the change of style from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 over the last few years, though it didn’t completely convince me – but this is just taking the piss! We can talk all we want about ‘small team mentality’ but it just sounds a little pathetic when we put teams like that out there in big games, blatently looking for point and hoping for three. Really disappointed – again not with the players (barring Giggs – why did he even bother to stand in the wall? DDG would have had a better chance without him there!) but with the team selection/management.
Shit game, ok result. We were lucky. Still can’t get why we would starts with that line up. DDG had a good game and good goal from Chicha, that’s about it. One more thing is that this Pool team wasn’t a big deal
to be honest, i hoped for a win but after going a goal down a draw doesn’t seem so bad now, however this will be costly as we will be demoted to second place when those blue bastards beat villa, unless a miracle occurs and villa get a nil draw or win, some how i don’t see that happen.
Bibg ups to Danny as well, he provided the vital assist and did okay seeing he was starved of any service, And ofcourse Hernandez, the mexinator is truly deadly in front of goal
That will do. A brave performance by all, everybody contributed. Standouts for me were Smalling at right-back, Welbeck put in another great shift, and I thought Darren Fletcher looked as comfortable in the midfield as anyone has looked for us all season. DDG looks a United keeper to me too, saving us points rather than losing them, which is all you can ask of your man in green.
I understand what SAF went for with the selection, we needed not necessarily to win the midfield battle today, but to not lose it. Collectively we managed that for the most part, at the expense of not opening up the dippers too many times.
My favourite moment? Apart from Chicho’s goal, it has to be Captain Evra kissing the badge on the touchline to annoy the rats. Beautiful.
I think when he was growing up, Lilttle Rafa probably idolized our Sir Alex and secretly wanted to be like him. Then when he won La Liga twice with Valencia, he must’ve thought he’s the Chosen One and marched into England feeling he can finally emulate or beat his master. The psychosis reached its zenith when his merry band somehow managed to steal a victory on penalties against Milan (a discrepancy that was duly corrected couple of years later).
Since then, Rafa, the Scousers and Inter have all been shite, but his psychosis prevents him from acknowledging a well-known fact in football:
Sir Alex is the greatest manager of ALL FRIGGIN’ TIME.
Poor Little Rafa must be stuck at Stage 1 of the Five Stages of Grief. C’mon ROM, show some heart to the toad.
it’s our fault we could have given these idiots Like 5 0r 6 if we started everyone from the start. Pple usually praise rooney for his attacking but how about that defending at the end from rooney. WORLD CLASS DEFENDING from a world class player.
McNammanan is a cUnT!
Should have won it, Smalling looked really uncomfortable at right back today. Everytime a Lucas has a good game and Giggsy doesn’t my blood boils. I don’t why can’t Berbatov start, he’s as fresh as anyone else.
Oh, and how I love Hernandez. The only player who can make me almost forget the beauty in Van Nistelrooy’s game. I haven’t seen anyone come close to RVN’s perfection as a poacher until Hernandez. I know some dickheads with little knowledge of football might say that all he does is score tap-ins or some nonsense like that. But being in the right place at the right time is a gift not everybody has, and Chicharito has that in abundance. I absolutely love this guy to death. Viva Hernandez!
Good result under the circumstances. Very soft free kick for them but the wall didnt do its job, should never have hit the back of the net.
Remember guys we started without Rooney, Chich, Anderson, Nani, Valencia, Vidic or Cleverley… and we only got on our Pea-shooter with about 20 minutes to go…. so all in all im happy. We had a horrid time there three years in a row, now we got a draw with a dramatically but down first 11.
Smalling class!!
De Gea….. THAT’s how you silence the haters..
Evra….. Kissing the badge in front of a taunting Kop…. LEGEND!
Welbeck… great shift!
Rooney….. Determination saved us from loss at the end.. he can play ANYWHERE…
Hernandez… What can I say… SECOND GAME AT ANFIELD.. SECOND GOAL!! How lucky are we to have this guy penned to contract for five years???
All in all, for Anfield.. we are the happier team with that result! At Old Trafford, there’s no doubt we’ll hammer them after that.
I haven’t see any replays, can someone tell me how much contact Rio actually made with Adam? It looked like a dive to me.
If the first half was anything to go by, a draw may have been a good result for us. After seeing us in the second half (once Rooney, Hernandez, and Nani came on) combined with the beast that is our goalkeeper, a win for us should have been the case. Not sure what to make of the delay in putting our attacking trio into the game.
I’m not giving SAF a free pass on this one, tactically he was, well just off. Annoying thing is he tries this tactic whenever we play potential banana skin type games. Going to get into my critique of the game a little later on because to be honest i’m pretty pissed off and i say this right now couldn’t give a rats ass about the result. If those lads and the back staff don’t feel bad about this performance today then God help us
Officiating was also quite horrendous at the end there. An Evans’ handball that wasn’t given, Adam’s was never a foul and then the ball bounces of Enrique’s hand and a penalty wasn’t given again. I take it Dalglish’s meetings with Riley go well.
@Mahesh
Great post about our line up.
Redknapp an absolute joke. Saying Rio should have been off for that “tackle” on Adam. Red Nev making a fool out of him now though.
@90+UntilWeScore
Don’t know what you’re on about Ice Cold was one of our best today, a dependable performance.
That said Fergie’s probably glad he wiped the smirk off Kenny face, i guess thats something to cheer about
Gary do us a favour and slap Redknapp across the fking face for me please!
David de gea was our player of the match…why the negativity, this is a point gained rather than two lost, not many teams will beat liverpool at home
Now, Liverpool can go back to being shite since they are done with their cup final.. SAF should have started Rooney and Nani but hey, I will never question the gaffer. If the gaffer is happy with a point then so am I. We will take care of them at OT. And, DDG was the Man of the Match.Period.
Gerrard is a real cunt honestly, despite not knowing him personally but you know a prick when you see one, what was that celebration about? the overrated twat.
ok ok, I think SAF’s tactics earned us a point, our defence was solid today until we had to attack, so we are still striking a balance between them. He went for Phil in MF for the energy which helped to stifle the rat munchers anf rio was world class IMO and ref was terrible as usual
sorry l forgot to add, DDG was stupendously awesome
@berbatunday – With you on that one. I think defensively, that was a performance we can use as a building block for the rest of the season, it’s starting to come to us again there, and we’re becoming much less dependant on a Rio-Vida partnership. Johnny Evans fended off Suarez brilliantly for the most part, to the point he was mostly kept to long range efforts.
@Zibbie
Agree on ESPN- can’t stand listening to him make excuses. Lucas is unintentional on Jones or Evra gets a “little” kick but definitely contact from Rio and should be a second yellow. what a total cunt. UFC should set up a cage match w Red Nev tearing him a new one
Stevie Me just admitted he got his freekick wrong and was trying to go over the wall! Dear god, Ryan Giggs, what did you fucking do?!
Hmm, well, I suppose a draw isn’t too bad… Bet City go top later today though.
Good things were Hernandez scoring and De Gea’s performance. What a performance that was from a 20-year old keeper. How good is this lad going to be?
And, what in God’s name was Giggsy doing moving away from the wall like that??!! Trust me, a root canal surgery is way less torturous than seeing Gerrard score against us.
Balaji – no one criticised pippo inzaghi who is one of the grand masters of poaching clinical finishing so why hernandez? i’m glad he is returning back to form because we need him, now lets hopefully put in a good performance against otelul galati and then ready for the blood and thunder match against city, hopefully united will get a competent ref. marriner has liverpool tattoo’d under his ref’s uniform.
Former England defender Danny Mills at Anfield on BBC Radio 5 live: “Sir Alex Ferguson came here today and he got his formation wrong, his tactics wrong, and his personnel wrong. Manchester United were awful. There’s no other word for it. The concern for Liverpool is that they still didn’t manage to beat them.”
Couldnt of said it better myself Danny, sort it out Fergie ffs and dont dare say your happy with that performance.
Rio caught him,slight but enough def free kick ino more than happy to come away with a point very unhappy with our set up.
@Utd4life
Shit happens. I don’t like seeing it either but it was more than cancelled out by the Evra-badge-kiss-of-life and Chicho peeling away in ecstasy after his goal. Both beautiful, unforgettable moments.
Even though Fergie’s plan almost worked to perfection (Rooney and Nani were about to come on when Gerrard scored) and we ended up with the point, lets hope that this won’t encourage Fergie to put out another line up like this.
As for the foul, Ryan (very) uncharacteristically did a Fletcher and moved away from the wall, but I guess that he still has room for error in his glorious career.
i actually thought the tactics made some sense..
he set us up to stop liverpool. can anyone of you seriously think a point is bad after what happened for the past three years… ?
also we’re travelling to romania this week and then we’ve got city..
i actually thought it made sense to rese nani and rooney cause we do have a bigger fish to fry…
also vidic will play midweek so will valencia and berbatov..
cleverly will make a sub appearance..
this ensures us being full strength and at our best when city come visiting
it did seem like fergie’s emphasis is on beating city rather than liverpoool
looking at the bigger picture this one game won’t make much difference to the season.. they city game though will make a difference…
its a good point
De gea was fuckin brilliant..
the guy surely deserves more praise than is given to him..
smalling – amazing
rio defied age
evra- best moment was badge kissing in front of the kop defending spot on
evans – solid
jones – not a MF for this sort of game
fletcher – short of fitness and went missing quite often
park – some good interceptions. anonymous apart from that
giggs – nothing special..
young – tried hard
welbeck – great shift
rooney- plays in every damn position
chicho- no need to say anything.. absolutely special talent
@parryheid, Yeah, the replay clearly shows Rio catching Adam’s heel. Whether that was enough to bring him down is in question, but I know any coach will be unhappy if the player does not go down in such a situation. Definitely a free-kick IMO.
@samuel, Not sure mate, I’ve heard some idiots criticize Hernandez even on ROM in the past year for doing nothing more than scoring goals. Some of my friends were quite critical of RVN as well for scoring simple tap-ins while Henry did the more spectacular stuff. Of course, most of these people don’t understand the intricacies of football, but still… That is what made me say such a thing. I fucking lover Hernandez to bits. He is offering me the same thrills that RVN did all those years ago; and long may it continue.
Evra had one of his best games for us in recent memory. I’ve seen a lot of players cramble under the pressure at Anfield, but Pat stepped up his game immensely. And also had the balls to kiss the badge in their faces.
Nice one Pat. Welcome back.
1-1 a point in a 38 game marathon.
Oh well time to hit the lake.
Be well, I have to come down and reflect so I don’t say to much stupid shit.
Lil Pea new contract and a goal!
@Balaji
I think I prefer Little Pea to RVN – he’s just such a character, so bleedin likeable you can’t help but root for him.
Chicharito’s goal tells us everything we need to know about the boy. It was a brilliant poacher’s goal. The way he dropped off, got rid of his marker and then made the diagonal run ahead of Giggs( I think) was just sensational. He ran past three players in his run and he was the first to anticipate that the ball would fall in that position. It had Ole and Ruud written all over it. He is a natural.
@Costas, Spot on about Evra. He deserves praise for a brilliant performance. He was rarely caught and was his usual self going forward. He definitely stepped up big time today. And, like you said, the badge kissing was just icing on the cake.
@Costas @Balaji
Did you see Evra racing back to defend on about the ’90 mark? Utterly immense.
The referee today was infuriating he constantly cocked up even the small insignificant calls like who gets the throw in. He had the players back to him whilst the TV camera had a better view, those at home can see that it comes off a red shirt, yet Liverpool get the ball every time. That coupled with his decision to not acknowledge Suarez’s kick which I’m sure is the same thing Rooney got a 3 match ban for just pisses me off. The failure to win against Liverpool is not completely down to the referee, but Ferguson himself. I am lost as to what exactly he was trying to achieve? The team he put out was defensive, that in itself is confusing. A point against Liverpool at that shithole is a lot more than we usually got. Not bad, but our next few games are crucial, wouldnt want another experimental side, Fergie.
Who ever complained about sir alex tactic, please look at the bigger picture. It is fair enough to put second string team as a respond to the “this game is not a big game” according to dalglish. Who ever playing today, he had to think about the other important game next week. that why United is champion over 38 game.
Darren Fletcher 55 of his 61 passes 90.2%. Best completion rate. Still needs to get some fitness and impose his game. DeGea MOM by some margin. Ref didn’t do us any favors, probably bad decision on Rio card but would have been a free kick I think. Suarez should have had a card as well. Fair enough. For me. Roo, Chicha should have been on 10minutes earlier.
But hats off to Chicharito. Most players wouldn’t have had time to react to that flickon. WOW, what a player. Followed it all the way and got his header spot on. Go on Javier. Well done son.
Comeon United
Yeah let’s put out an offensive formation and get 3 goals again.
we tried it the last 3 years and lost. This time we got a point.
Worked out so what?
i’m very rarely negative but don’t understand team selection or tatics Dippers are fucking shit,should’ve played a full strength side and an attacking mentality would have won the game easy.
Very very disappointed,at least we found out Jones at the moment isn’t a midfielder,yesterday King Eric laughed at the idea Jones would start in midfield,now we can all see why,
Really confused about what i just watched,can’t make any understanding of it.
Well, the game panned out like I thought it would. We contained them first half. Second half, the game opened up when Liverpool scored. Lucky for us, De gea and Hernandez saved the day. Smashing finish by the little pea. Our keeper showed why we spent big money on him. I counted at least 4 very good saves. Well done lads. Some of us were perplexed by the way we set up. I think the lads played like that. Not quite knowing their positions at times. Jones will play in CM one day. This wasn’t the occasion for that experiment. We’ve got to be happy with the point though. At least we stopped the rot.
Balaji – ignore them as at the end of the day, scoring more than your opponent is the name of the game, if hernandez scored a goal that rolled off his ass to win a champions league final or the premier league then i bet they wouldn’t be complaining, you can’t always score spectacular goals as the supposed simplest things are the hardest to do, hernandez is a specialist at what other strikers struggle to do, he also makes impacts in the biggest games which says it all about his character.
Of course like i’ve always maintained, i think his all round game needs a few more work to take a step up another level, you can’t always score but you can make an impact if you have a good all round game.
@The truth – I don’t think that side was experimental at all. That was the best side we could have put out given the situation (long international break, straight into an important game). Not sure if I would have changed anything in that back four, they were all brilliant. Phil Jones, whilst ineffective for much of the game did actually break the play up a bit and gave us a bit of muscle in the middle, which is what we needed. Just because he didn’t bomb on and positionally was a little bit naiive at times, I don’t think he had a bad game as such.
I don’t think either the ref nor the linesman saw Suarez’ kick on Evra. Even if they had, I think it would have probably only been yellow.
Yes there were dodgy decisions all over the place, but you come to expect that at Anfield. Andre Mariner was just trying to make sure his car kept all four wheels.
Viva Chicharito!! Ole De Gea!! wonderfoul boys, other classic goal of Chico.
This was just the 2nd draw in United-Liverpool games in the last 12 years.
I don’t think there was much wrong in leaving the offensive players on the bench. Though i would have started Nani or Rooney I would still have gone with Chicharito on the bench, bringing him on as a sub like we just did. But anyway. I love it that we slapped all those faces who celebrated like they won the league. Bunch of losers. Fantastic Chicharito. I could have died punching my chest when we equalized.d and Evra was a stand out for me today. Did very well. And Jones should stick to the back, midfield isn’t the best place in the world for him.
The thing i was delighted about, undoubtedly, DE GEA. I’m so proud of the lad, every fantastic save he makes, i punch my fist in the air. So much flak taken, it’s time he show who he is.
Rio, De Gea & Evra was stand out performers for me.
I love Chico !
Marion Balotelli is the Cantona of Stockport !
Oooh Aaaah Mario-oh !
——————————
SAF sounds delighted with a draw
Yeah Costas, much better performance from Paddy Evra. Loved the way he kissed the badge lol.
dammit didn’t see the badge kissing. Was it during the equalizer celebration? I was too busy banging my chest in furious joy.
Although we didn’t win I thought United did enough to get out of Anfield unbeaten
Costas is right why did we set ourselves up the way we did? – after all why respect Liverpool?
However I see it from another POV – they have ripped us apart far too many times at Anfield and I thought that SAF was a little bit clever in putting out the team he did
Leaving Rooney out and then playing him in a “Xavi” role was pure football genius – however I bow my head down to the Keeper – the best thing is that he isn’t even close to being great yet slowly but surely alongside his back four he will become more than immense – this was the best thing to see at scouse house – have to mention Smalling and Evans too – kept their cool under many circumstances and did very well – I thought Jones did well too despite not making an impact – I did think though doughnut Adam and five fingers Gerrard got too much of the midfield
And how did Lucas get away “accidentally” colliding with Jones? Refereeing was at best 70% Liverpool 30% United – The Rio free kick for the goal was never a free kick but then Giggs should have done better – he actually glanced back juts before the free kick took place and knew the space behind him was open – so why he moved was beyond me…
In all we did well – they didn’t win so they can shove their fucking five European cups up their fucking arses
19
It was after that cheating bastard Cilla Dodd kicked him at the kop end.
Why are people surprised at Marriner? He’s a fucking homer.
@ The truth
We are all armchair critics.Sir Alex is the real deal.Don’t slag our manager off like that! We can analyse why he came out with such line up & how much the players performed to his tactics. Don’t slag off our main man like that-you don’t know how bad it is to go 20years without a league title[just ask Liverpool]. Any way , a good result I feel .We earned a point and spoilt their party.
everytime de gea comes out and punches the ball, they say he is flapping at crosses, i think he is been targeted on purpose by those a.b.u wankers, he’ll only get better with time, like people have pointed out, he was indeed outstanding today, the man inbuilt strong mentality.
Shall go watch it, thanks Willie.
Paddy may not have been consistent for the past few games(he was great today), but even when the man’s on an off day, i can’t bring myself to point it out. He says all the right things, and acts the way every United fans want their player to act.
Moving on to midweek, must win, no doubt.
And then let’s crush shitty to pieces.
Fair play stevie me. He said De gea has had unfair criticism. Still a scouse cunt though.
How often does a player get one of those roberto carlos-esque curling free kicks right? One in 100? Just stay still in the wall and don’t bother trying anything fancy. FFS one would imagine that our players are thought how to stand still in a wall, but apparently no. So incredibly avoidable their goal its unreal.
For people wondering about Fergie’s tactics…the fact is until that VERY SOFT free kick somehow found its way into the back of the net (why is it that gerrard always passes free kicks into the net against united?) Liverpool didn’t manage to threaten United in any real way at all. It was only after that incident that the game really picked up.
I think Fergie was thinking more about the next two games. Champions League away fixture on Tuesday. We have only 2 points from 2 games… I think a win on Tuesday takes the pressure off considerably… will leave us with 5 points and still 9 to play for. Then next weekend we have Citeh at O.T., and if the result stays in the game they are playing right now, we need to win that to take back the summit. While hernandez obviously had impact, you can’t say for certain if he started we’d have won, the game just isn’t that simple. But we came away from Anfield with no injuries… so be happy.
Lou Macari continues to claim that United have easy matches coming up after the City game. So according to him Everton away is easy as well as Villa away to name just two.
Park did well today to stop Liverpool playing especially in the first half. Changes should have been made on the hour so they came a few minutes too late which lead to Liverpool goal.
A massive point and very pleased as a draw was all I was hoping for.
Ryan Giggs was absolutely awful today. Surely Fergie will realise sooner or later that we cant afford to be carrying players like Giggs. He gives the ball away constantly which puts us under needless pressure at certain times in games. The guy is an absolute legend but I think its time for him to be retired, if he wont do it himself (which seems unlikely) fergie should retire him. He’s always been great on the ball but he’s a complete bottler when it comes to tackles and what he did today in the wall was unforgiveable for a professional player. He was afraid the ball would hit him so he jumped out of the way!
Sir Bobby Carlton is a legend, but we wouldn’t play him next week so why do we persist with Giggs when he’s clearly past it?
@squishthemick — What? Are you serious? Giggs has barely played this season, perhaps that has something to do with him not being up to scratch. Not to mention, today we played at Anfield. It was only a few months ago that Giggs setup THREE goals against Chelsea in champions league quarter finals tie. He still has a part to play for United, we aren’t fucking carrying him. Don’t be so prone to knee-jerk reactions. And he didn’t jump out of the way, he thought Gerrard was going to try curl it around the wall to the near-post.. in fairness, it hit off the post and went in, it was a jammy goal from a soft free kick!!
He will tear someone apart soon and you’ll swallow your words and you better be happy to do so!
Dela – I agree with that point. I was expecting a 451 formation. We had to do something different, because 442 hadn’t worked the last 3 times at anfield. The personnel I wasn’t expecting. That was probably more the problem, than the formation. For instance, Carrick instead of Jones? Nani for Park. In the end, we got the point.
still it’s unforgiveable to move out of the wall.
Samuel @ 14:10: “giggs and park need to come off”
I was very, very surprised that SirRyanGiggs stayed on for the whole match. ThreeLungPark had done his job for the first sixty/seventy minutes and, apart from his “flinch” on the free kick, Giggs did well and was able to make a quite brilliant cut-and-thrust between two LiverPoo defenders (in the 87th minute) to get the ball into the danger area. Still, I’d favour Ashley Young and Nani and TheWayneBoy to provide DannyTheLad and Chicharito with service in the last minutes of the match. As it was, this must have been one of Jamie Carragher’s easier matches – did he even need to sweat ?
What surprised me even more was that once Nani was brought on, the ball kept going down the left side so Nani was starved – that makes no sense since he’s a trickster who can create something out of nothing.
David De Gea’s reflex saves were terrific and, apart from one brain-fart while he was dawdling on the ball, Jonny Evans also did well today.
So, SAF’s strategy of rope-a-dope almost worked. AND, fortunately, the referee didn’t have much to do and didn’t do much.
Was it a point gained or two lost – without-a-doubt, it’s certain that Mancini will now park-the-bus at OT a week-Sunday.
My last comments but starting Jones in midfield and Danny as lone striker no one else thinks that’s fucked up.
The Lads banging on about last year wasn’t it Utds 4th game in 13 days coming off a midweek game against Rentboys all 4 games away from home also with key injuries.Can’t compare last years game to this in anyway
When was the last time Utd played well with a lone striker? a five man midfield doesn’t suit our personel.
Isn’t Utds strength our attacking ability,isn’t dippers weakness a slow defense
3 games with this kit, 3rd 1-1 draw. Bring back the Bolton kit from last year.
Villa’s annual collapse at the wastelands.
@wayne
It was a weak selection. No doubt about it. I think most of us agree that United HAD to play more tight in defence. And that’s why I wanted us to play 4-5-1 at Anfield. But from the front 6, the only two that I would have gone with on the day are Fletcher and Young. Carrick, Ando, Nani and Rooney would have given us a lot more attacking threat, even if we played 4-5-1.
Extra incentive for next week to knock them off top spot
credit to Jones for his efforts to put pressure on skrtel though. Must’ve crapped seeing the beast coming. Was a boring match, but a point’s a point.
@willie
You mean anal?
City on top hey? The only way for today’s sacrifice to pay off will be to stuff them next Sunday.
UnitedYankee @ 14:58: “Agree on ESPN- can’t stand listening to him make excuses. Lucas is unintentional on Jones or Evra gets a “little” kick but definitely contact from Rio and should be a second yellow. what a total cunt.”
IF Lucas wasn’t already on a yellow card then his charge on Jones would have earned one; but…. what can you say except that the ref wanted to keep the game at 11 v. 11 ?
The comments by Darke and McMannaman were pathetic – especially because they kept going on about how “little” it was even after the replays showed solid contact on his funny-bone. By the way, isn’t that little Patrice Evra one hard-as-nails warrior ? His positioning might be suspect too often but his commitment to the cause is awe-inspiring.
Rio’s foul on Adam was really soft but he did contact him and cause him to lose balance so I think that the ref got that right – although it could be argued that he let a lot of other “soft” calls go so why did he come up “hard” on this one ? There’s always an element of unpredictability in refereeing – the game is really fast and they don’t have the benefit of replays.
rohan19 @ 15:05: ” fergie’s emphasis is on beating city rather than liverpoool
looking at the bigger picture this one game won’t make much difference to the season.. they city game though will make a difference…”
Reluctantly, I agree with your level-headed assessment. We’d all like TheLads to stomp on LiverPoo at AnFailed but it’s just another game nowadays and the road to #20 is likely to be filled with away-performances like this one.
At the game, odd team selection, I know we have three matches but no Rooney, Pea, Nani, Valencia to start? Welbeck did not have a proper strike partner, we did not threaten what is an unexceptional Liverpool defence or even really test it.
Rio and Evra were amazing. Jones and Fletcher combination did not work, I had thought Jones could play DM but this did not work. Would have preferred carrick to fletch.
We had no pace or penetration in the final third AT ALL till pea and Rooney came on.
Disappointing, I was sitting there thinking there defence and midfield are nothing amazing yet the players we put out offered little attacking wise. Giggs was at fault for goal and seemed out if sorts. Did not enjoy this game at all. Gutted with the draw. We had the players to kill them, we didnt even use that.
I’m not gutted with a draw. When they scored, I thought we were beat. Thank God for the little pea. Funny though, the one class cross into the box, we scored from it.
can’t wait for people saying again that citeh is better than barcelona cause they are beating Villa
@ Dela
I know it might seem like a knee jerk reaction but i’ve elt like this for a long time with giggs. Just because he gets the occasional assist does not, in my opinion forgive him constantly giving the ball away. Its not good enough. The guy is a legend but I feel he should just retire. He’s not contributing enough over 90 mins and we have better options now in the squad.
The commenators for sky etc praise him to the hilt and he can do no wrong on their eyes which I think influences people/fans but i’d love to see his pass completion stats in games and I think it would prove my point. He’s been a bottler in terms of tackles for as long as i’ve seen him play. He will not go for 50-50 tackles, he’ll bottle out every time.
I thought Rio was great today. If he can just stay off the treatment table, he can still give us 25 great games this season.
Giggsy should really oughta be used as an impact sub from now on. I couldn’t believe when SAF hooked Young instead of Giggs.
Smalling did a good job defensively….going forward? not so much! He kept giving the ball away and just looked awkward with the ball.
We need a Right back.
The ‘Pool fans must be gutted.
KK – Kautious Kenny cost Liverpool 3 points today because he started the game with a MF in the attack. Or should I say he started with a MF of 4 and a lone striker.
He should have gone with SG in the MF with Bellamy up front.
KK’s far too cautious to be a PL winning manager.
Still Fergie must be happy with the point considering the starting eleven he put out. His tactics of keeping ‘Pool out in the first half then hitting them in the second nearly came off.
However, the good point was that ‘Pool fielded a full strength team and were unable to beat UTD who were well below strength. Really can’t see ‘Pool getting into the top 4 this season.
On another note, the signing of Charlie Adam defined KKs ambitions for this season – steady as you go.
If a club has serious ambitions of winning the EPl, it doesn’t sign journeymen like Adam.
Inter Milan are fucked, I hope they remain where they are… Maicon and Snieder in jan or may be in summer…
@Kuanl:
MAYBE you should go back play your FM2011 instead spouting BS here…
Of course Rafa didn”t have to start from scratch either. In his first year at Anfield he won the champions league with a side he largely inherited.
He was able to buy some very good players like Torres but he never pulled the rabbit out of the hat with bargain buys like we did- in vidic and evra. In fact we took the trickier path with players that had potential- Ronaldo/ Nani than Benitez who largely bought players who had peaked with limited ability- ie crouch.
@the cantona, so you don’t think we need proper right back? See anybig teams in Europe and compare their RB to ours… And wht BS abt Sneider, it was in media, u think he’ll be at inter next year? No ways I just hope city don’t get him….
At right back we have Rafael and Fabio. O’Shea was let go in the summer so the boss must have felt we had adequate cover. I don’t really think Jones or Smalling suit that position and the option of Valencia is attrocious as he can’t defend.
So we need Rafael and Fabio to come back into the team. A while ago I’d have said they can’t defend either but they were young and can improve. I don’t really think Maicon is any better. He was destroyed by Bale who isn’t that good. Ramos at Madrid is a madman and Alves at Barcelona has basically no need to defend.
I think we have a more pressing need to sort out the midfield. It is exciting to watch Cleverly emerge but the problem is- we need to be better than Barcelona. If not we are going to stand still at best. It is a tall order for Cleverly to become such a great player. If he should fall short of worldclass then he will fit nicely in our collection of very good but not exceptional midfielders. But we do need a standout player in there.
It’s useless to show these facts to Benitez. HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO COUNT, HE IS NIL IN MATHEMATICS.