I'll still widen my gap over you i think... goals from Smith and Forsell. You'll lose points with RvN and probably Given after the Chelsea match. teehee. I like my team.
it looked to me that the liverpool player stepped on the ball and fell from that and not contact from rio
Hoddle agreed -- I still think SP may have gone down a little too easily - but if you don't watch their feet, it does look like Rio gets a push in the back.
I don't see how, the replay clearly showed Sinama pushing the ball around the keeper with the outside of his foot. His foot got to the ball a split second before Rio. Rio almost made a great play to poke it away but it was too late because the striker did what he had to do, protecting the ball as he started to push it around the keeper. In my mind he fell because of the contact resulting from Rio's attempt on the ball. That's a penalty.
I think it should have been a penalty, BUT in real time I *thought* it should have been a penalty. Could I have been decisive that Rio didn't get the ball from the refs angle and at that speed? I was surprised to see the FSW crew all opposed to a penalty there. They also seemed to be blaming Heskey's slip on not wearing studs. That was kinda funny 8)
Liverpool really seemed to deserve a point out of this one. Howard gave the ball away very, very badly twice today. Looked a little like he looked towards the end of the Metros, still a spectacular keeper, but dodgy at times. Still, they won the game and Howard ultimately made the saves he had to make.
i think this was Howard's least impressive performance for United - maybe a little lucky not to get burned on one of tow poor clearances. he was not at fault on the goal. if this was a 'bad day' for Howard it bodes well actually. 2-1 win at Liverpool
to be fair to Timmy, some of those backpasses to him today were quite dodgy. His defense seemed to panic in the last 20 minutes. The backpass he cleared right to a Liverpool player came to him pretty much point blank, with some force.
Pretty good for a bad day! I think he was fine. Yes, a couple sketchy clearances. But United were playing far too cavalier trying to pass their way out of trouble. Howard was only a part of that. Otherwise, his shot stopping was perfect. And he deals with tricky crosses and bounces better than any American keeper. In my opinion he's second behind (bastard, *#*#*#*# Chelsea) Cudicini for best keeper in England.
Just watched this, and I agree that Howard was far from excellent today. But his flubs were less severe than Dudek's flub, and that might have been the difference. Couldn't believe when he dribbled around the Liverpool attacker. Shades of Jorge Campos.
Rio didn't get the ball, but he didn't get the attacker either. It was a dive. He stepped on the ball a bit when trying to touch it, and he lost it so he went down. After 6 views of the replay, I've yet to see him touched.
I agree.I was not his best day but it was not like he stunk the place up.He had one bad clearance that cost ManU nothing.Except for that he was fine. He also had one very good save.
After seeing the goal a few times on replay... i dont think timmy even saw it. There were some bad passes back to timmy, but a few that werent so bad that he just mis kicked. Seeing him dribble around that attacker was great. Allthough I think he was a little nervous about kicking it away in that situation given his previous poor clearances.
football.guardian.co.uk has this appraisal of Tim's performance: "Tim Howard was once again secure and when an urgent response was at last required, in the 47th minute, he sprang to turn Kewell's drive behind." Sounds like he had another good game http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,1527,1081467,00.html and the Independent ranks him as one of the better players in the match Manchester United: (4-4-2) Howard 7; G Neville 6, Ferdinand 6, Silvestre 7, O'Shea 7; Giggs 8, P Neville 5, Keane 6, Fortune 5 (Fletcher 83); Forlan 4, Van Nistelrooy 3. Liverpool: (4-4-2) Dudek 4; Finnan 5, Biscan 5, Hyypia 7, Traoré 6; Diouf 5 (Le Tallec 5, 69), Gerrard 6, Murphy 6, Smicer 5 (Sinama-Pongolle 7); Kewell 7, Heskey 3. http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/liverpool/story.jsp?story=462223
I have at times been critical of some aspects of Howard's performance, but the stuff on this thread was over the top. He had two bad clearances, one of them completely caused by the fact that the back pass was horrid. Other than that his positional play was perfect and he stopped a few hard shots. No one in the world is going to stop Harry Kewell from 7 yards out in the middle of the box unless Kewell happens to hit the goalie somewhere.
Re: Re: 11/9 Howard: Man Utd @ Liverpool {R} it could have been called a penalty, it wasn't called because 1. ref and or linesman didn't see it well 2. ref felt the player fell to easy 3. refs in general favor Man U 4. refs knows his game and we don't from the manu web site Howard 7 – On the whole, dependable as ever, although his kicking wasn’t quite up to scratch which could have led to Liverpool scoring on more than one occasion
I though Howard played well for the most part - the poor clearances were more the cause of dodgy back-passes, but he still should have done better with them (it seems that he has been getting a lot of practice on dodgy back-passes this year) No chance on the goal (although that is the type of save he has made in the past - that is to say, of the unfreakinbelievable variety). Looking at the replay, it was a penalty, but in real time, I didn't think so. I'm pretty sure the ref was swayed by the fact that a) he was looking at it from behind and b) The Liverpudlian pushed the ball in the same vector that would have occurred if Rio got to the ball first as Rio makes his challenge. But it's the small plays. Like Tim scooping up a short hop and leaving no rebound. or Dudek botching the second goal. That's the difference between a good keeper and a merely average one.
He was also completely screened off - I don't think he saw the ball until it was past him. I didn't notice this during the PBP, but on the 2nd play where Howard came out (happened after the PK non-call) when a Liverpool player got free on the right side of the goal, I thought Howard did very well to get down and get a hand on the ball -- I didn't realize he had actually knocked the ball away until later.
Howard did fine. He had those two bad clearances but showed he wasnt lacking any condience when he dribbled past one pool player. Did fine on crosses if i remember correctly And its never a penalty. Pongolle has to let go off his penalty fetish. Splarg if that had been your "hero" ruud id love to see you say that was a penalty. Minimal contact but nothing to warrant a penalty
A very nice article on Tim's performance: http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/s...terunited/stories/Detail_LinkStory=72480.html Some quotes... From Ferguson: "Tim Howard was absolutely marvellous. The lad is improving in every game and I can't say enough about the guy. For 24 years of age he is showing great maturity." From Phil Neville: "Tim Howard makes everything look so easy. It is the sign of a great keeper," he said. Also from their player ratings: HOWARD: One dodgy clearance but otherwise solid with his hands and cool with his feet 8
They seemed to play more than a handfull of backpasses to him throughout the game. He never really looked completely comfortable with them. Especially that one he misplayed right to a defender. I haven't been watching a lot of Man U yet this season but it does seem that in foreign leagues they like to play the ball to the keeper's feet much more than they do in MLS. [Edit: I should add that I personally don't think that getting the number of backpasses he did in that game is exactly a sign of good defense on Man U's part.] Timmy was a bit out of position on the goal he gave up but can't be completely faulted. At times the Man U defense looked a bit disorganized althought there was usually someone there to save the day.
maxim its much more to do with the fact that the defenders are confident with Howard in goal and his distribution