Great Result! What a tense ending with that FK. I was close (1-0 instead of 2-1) and I should have stuck to Wayne as my scorer. He had a good game but I think Saha was subpar today. CR was good too until he had to come off and may I say what a player our Heinze is! He had a great tackle on Morientes. Anyway 3 point and now on to WHL and three points for Spurs against the blues. Come on Spurs! Beat Chelsea today please!
Questions to be asked: (1) What was said at half-time to the referees? The officiating changed drastically after half-time. It became more harsh, generally. But United also got *no* calls after this point (unless you call the non-penalties for the clearly unintentional hand-balls getting a call). Ronaldo wasn't given a couple of very, very clear fouls (and indeed was penalized once while getting his shirt pulled). Even the commentators, who dislike him, mentioned it. Rooney was obviously fouled immediately before his yellow (in retaliation for an obviouis foul). Scholes was notably fouled badly once, without a call. Gerrard even started to apologize before he realized he'd gotten away with it. A couple of calls were made against our defenders that left the announcers perplexed. A yellow wasn't given for Milan Baros' cynical, tripping challenge...yet one was given for Fortune's more innocuous challenge a moment later. We definitely did not get the rub of the whistle in the 2nd half. Hell, we weren't even permitted to say within 13 yards of Gerrard's free kick towards the end. What the hell was that? The Brown red card was completely accurate. But the vast majority of the little decisions went against us. I wouldn't mention this, except the shift occurred immediatley after half-time, which suggests intent. Not claiming cheating, but was something seen by the refs on teh game tape? (2) Why are Darren Fletcher and Phil Neville in the squad? Neville is a fullback/midfielder who can't attack. He defends well. This means he should play for Birmingham. Darren Fletcher, to be fair, has looked good at times. But today he was worthless. Were I to give ratings for games, his would be a 3 or 4. He constantly lost possession, failed to win 60/40 (in his favor) balls, and went for body-checks instead of tackles, where the tackle was easy. (3) Why couldn't Silvestre play this way without Rio last year? He was spectacular today. Clearly, MoM (and not Rooney). Can't say enough good about him. (4) Heinze is Frankie Hejduk with skills. Has anyone else noticed this? He even has the same trademark 2 footed tackle. (5) Saha wasn't sharp, and probably should have ripped off a couple of shots, but this can be forgiven, given how long it's been since he played. He was nice in the air. (6) How much do Liverpool need a playmaker? Gerrard can't be their ball winner, playmaker, and winger all at once. But they need him to in order to succeed. Incidentally, half the Spaniards really suck. (7) Why wasn't Carroll dropped? He's played as poorly as Howard did to get dropped. And given that Howard is more athletically gifted, shouldn't he get the tie break? Especially since he didn't g et to play with Rio? I find myself wondering if Carroll's contract situation is working in his favor. (8) Wes Brown. Why?!?!?! Pointless. (9) Good defense . (10) Three points against a team that, unfortunately, will probably make the CL as the 4th team. Quite the gap between 3rd and 4th...isn't there? We probably had even more injuries, but still looked much classier.
We need to remind the rest of the EPL that we achieved this win at Anfield without Ruud, Rio, Giggsy, Gary, OGS, and Alan and also with only10 men at the end! Great win considering the class of the players we were missing today. I think we needed Alan at the end too with 10 men. Hope they all come back soon.
Tremendous win today! Just tremendous. Game balls to Silvestre who played a monster of a game, Henize is going to be a legend in about 5 years or so, Scholes who worked very hard today and Rooney for the goal
I totally agree! The last half saw some hard tackling by United, but what was outrageous was the sheer weight of fouls against us as opposed to liverpool. Did someone see that little flick at Scholes from behind by gerrard? or that tackle by baros on keano? There was almost no foul on 'Pool until Nunez tried planting the darn ball in the ground. Outrageous!
Yes indeed! I though the last FK was sort of a gift to LFC with 93 minutes gone. They almost scored too. It would have been a shame if we gave up the equalizer from that FK. Carroll did well even though he could not see the ball until the very last second. Anyway, the referee tried his best to make it 1-1.
He doesnt offer any chase. He wanders out there. Any defender with the ball knows he isnt under any pressure from Saha. He wont run at anyone to put them under any pressure. He played well for us the first few games into the squad last year, made the FrenchTeam as he wanted, and has spent the last while on the pitch going through his cosmetic bag game in and game out.
good summary... I think Phil is great for what he is though... a back up... and he played well enough today... some teams have back up fullbacks or midfielders who can go forward and contribute to the attack, but in a back up you want consistency and phil is consistently mediocre which is fine by me as long as he only plays when we have injuries. I think Scholes is man of the match along with Silvestre because Scholes made more tackles than Keane today!! Amazing work from the GingerNinja... as for Carroll not being dropped.. are you kidding me? He made one blunder when Howard had made 3 or 4 costing us points as well. I think Howard should be given a chance but I think Carroll who's been with us longer and should have been chosen over Howard last year due to seniority has more than earned his chance. Its nice to win a game without Giggs, Ruud and Smith... This game raises some questions for me though... Rooney obviously plays well on either flank while sometimes not as great right behind the striker when all are healthy who do we play and where? ------------Ruud -----Rooney Giggs----------Scholes----Smith/Ronaldo -----------Keano
Carrol was solid today, he made saves, was good in the air, and did anyone see that long range pass to CRon? Dy-no-mite! CRon was good as well, specially early in the game. he was playing like a playmaker, looking to create chances, making good passes and moves, he had Traore's number most of the game. Even keano almost had a goal, and Scholes was excellent. Overall the player I liked the best was Silvestre, always in the thick of it and always doing an outstanding job. Wes brown was good too, i think the best game he's had all year with the exception of those 2 cards. he was strong in the tackle, read the plays well, and had a good game. Overall i am still P-oed about the referee, I seriously was unable to see how United got everything called, the last fk where gerrard set up Carraghers shot was the final insult.
Rooney was really getting under the Kopites skin with that. Really they should have vented against Dudek.
I think SAF was right about Chelsea and Graham Poll. The guy who would not give us a penalty or two against City at OT gave Chelsea one the first chance he got at WHL. SAF was right as usual.