United On Fire

Liverpool 2 (Brown 27 og, Babel 77) Manchester United 1 (Tevez 2)

Robbie Keane shields the ball from Rio Ferdinand

A combination of good Liverpool pressing and woeful defending meant it was a bad day at the office for Fergie and his United team.

United’s mediocre start to the season continued, and on this showing it won’t start until a certain Portuguese bloke returns to the team.

It didn’t look very bad at after 2 minutes when Dimitar Berbatov’s United career got off to a great start.  Seemingly from nothing, Berbatov was able to get past the Liverpool defence but took the ball too wide for a direct shot.  Instead he pulled the ball back for the oncoming Carlos Tevez who placed the ball expertly into the net.

This shocked Liverpool a bit understandably and it took twenty minutes to get into the match, but when they did, United didn’t have the ability to cope.  Worryingly, it was a mistake in our formidable defence that allowed Liverpool to equalize.  Van der Saar seems to have caught a severe case of the wobbles.  He came for a cross and misjudged the flight of the ball.  He ended up overreaching for it and was only able to palm it away.  Nightmarishly, he palmed it onto the knee of Wes Brown who saw the ball fly back into the net.

United never recovered.  An injury to Carrick saw him and the team limp through to half time, where I had misguided thoughts that we could get back into the game.  However, Liverpool dominated the second half and United didn’t get much of a look in.  About the best chance came to Giggs who had come on for Carrick.  His long range shot was wonderful, but just to central and Reina was able to save it.

The whole United defence was a wobbly and I think that Patrice Evra never recovered properly from a clash of heads in the first half.  He looked dazed and confused immediately afterwards with the referee checking he was alright, and he seemed a bit out of it the whole game.

Liverpool’s winner came from the left, but it was Ryan Giggs at fault not Evra.  He failed to deal with a ball on his own goal line; neither putting it out nor shielding the ball properly.  Mascherano was able to take the ball off him and cross back to Babel who was able to bounce the ball into the net.

United didn’t have time to get an equalizer, but Vidic had time to commit two yellow card offenses and get sent off.  The first could probably have been a straight red as he was more or less the last man.  He’ll now miss the Chelsea game and with our defence in the poor form it is, he’ll be really missed.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Morning, here is a comedy video from Liverpool United game from quite a few years ago. Notable for two things :-

• Jamie Carragher’s two own goals
• A debut from Taibi with some great saves but a howler for Liverpool’s first goal.  He didn’t last long at Old Trafford.

Enjoy and then enjoy the game at lunchtime.

YouTube - Liverpool 2 - 3 Man Utd (1999-2000).

Popularity: 18% [?]

It feels like the season is just starting now.  After a draw at home to Newcastle, then an away win against Portsmouth, United’s season stopped.  First there was a “friendly” in Europe and then there was an international break.

So, it starts again away to Liverpool.  Good place to start, even though Gerrard and Torres have been declared fit.  Incredibly we are seeking our 6th straight win over Liverpool which is a remarkable run against one of the Big Four teams.   However, for as long as I can remember, United have done well over Liverpool.  Even when Liverpool were winning title after title, United managed to raise their game.

It is expected that Berbatov will make his debut tomorrow but I wonder who will make way for him.  Carlos Tevez has played well so far for us this season, and returned early from international duty after a red card for Argentina.  Tevez also scored the winning goal at Anfield last season.

Wayne Rooney was excellent against Croatia when England astonishing stuffed them 4-1 (but then he is usually underrated by the media when playing for England. Of course, Ronaldo is still injured so the temptation is to play all three.  But the Champions League starts midweek and I expect some sort of rotation to occur.  With Berbatov having no Champs League experience, he will probably be a sub on Wednesday.

I’m really looking forward to the match.  It feels like the season really starts tomorrow.  Come on United.  Good luck Berbatov in your first match.

Popularity: 23% [?]

At short notice, work has sent me on a training course next week (someone else canceled).  Which means unfortunately, I’ll miss both the Middlesbrough and Roma games.  Thankfully, as the Roma game is somewhat under control what with the 2 goal advantage, I feel confident that they will manage without me.  Sometimes, life sucks.

On the bright side, the course is in Barcelona.  Life doesn’t suck that much after all.

My work colleague in the Barca office has said he will see what he can about getting me tickets for the Barca Champions League clash, but I don’t hold out much hope.  And the chance of finding a bar not showing the Barcelona game and showing United instead is even lower.

Anyway, enough about midweek.  Tomorrow we face Middlesbrough away, and it has always been a tricky fixture for some reason.  In fact, this season, Middlesbrough have made a speciality of beating the big times whilst losing to the lower placed sides.

I had a bad dream last night that United lost (but it was to Watford) and the defence consisted of Brown, O’Shea, Silvestre and myself.  Disaster as I got sent off as well.  The referee was a nightmare.  But enough about my noctural imagination.  If Fergie does go for a defence including Silvestre and O’Shea we could be quite a bit of trouble.  I just hope that Sir Alex goes for a full strength team and rests the big guns against Roma on Wednesday.

The championship race became much clearer today as Arsenal drew (5th home draw in a row) to Liverpool, making it a more or less 2 horse race with Chelsea who saw off City quite easily.  The gap is 2 points and there is all to play for.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Ah, it was very nice writing the title of this post.  I’ve been away for the long Easter weekend, checking out the excellent Eden Project.   I was actually driving during the first half of this game and it was very funny listening to Liverpool fans Alan Green and Mark Lawrenson on Five Live “enjoying” the first half.  We stopped off to see my aunt and therefore missed the second half and the subsequent Arsenal Chelsea match up.  Observing radio silence on the way home, I watched the second half “as live” via Sky + and then watched Match of the Day 2 to watch the highlights and see Chelsea winning.  Chelsea fans didn’t deserve to win that game with their “You don’t know what your doing” chant.

Key points from the game.

• An early booking for Mascherano for a poor tackle on Scholes.  Mascherano then proceeds to spend the rest of the half moaning at the ref.
• United carve up the Liverpool defence on a number of occasions but Rooney is no Van Nistelrooy and doesn’t take his chances.
• Wes Brown gets a  rush of blood to the head, stays up field after a pass, then heads into the penalty area after our lone striker is sent wide.  Rooney plays a great ball in and Brown heads the ball goalward.  Reina manages to punch Brown in the back and miss the ball. 1-0!
• Torres picks up a booking for complaining too much about Ferdinand not getting a booking for fouling him.  Mascherano marches 30 yards, shrugs of Alonso and “asks” the ref what the booking was for.  Referee Bennett, clearly of the show not tell school, shows Mascherano exactly why the Spaniard was booked and gives the Argentine a second yellow.
• Mascherano completely loses it and has to be “assisted” off the field.  Liverpool end the half in complete disarray and give United fans a special Easter comedy to watch.
• Liverpool actually have a spell in the second half of some good play, but Ferdinand and Vidic completely contain the Liverpool attack.
• Anderson blasts one wild shot over the bar too many, and Giggs runs into a Liverpool defender once too often and are replaced by Tevez and Nani (a bold substition; but Fergie “knows what he is doing”)
• Ronaldo, clearly thinking his is offside, tamely shoots when 1-1 on Reina.  From the resulting corner, Ronaldo beats his marker and heads home for his 34th of the season.  Once again Reina comes for the ball and misses.
• Rooney and Nani combine well and the young Portuguese star shows Anderson just how to lash home a ball.  The shot was so quick that Reina didn’t bother to move for it.

In the end, a very comfortable win and the main talking point is the sending off, which was just very silly and childish from Mascherano.  United would have won anyway.  Chelsea beat Arsenal so United are 5 points clear at the top.  Arsenal’s title hopes appear to be over after no wins in five games.  United still have to go to Stamford Bridge where a draw will probably be enough to bring United the title.

It was announced today that Rio Ferdinand has been named England captain for the upcoming France friendly.   Good news for the man.  Whether Fernando Torres will have been let out of the England captain’s pocket before the game kicks off is not certain.

Popularity: 21% [?]