The reason behind United-Liverpool early kick-off fixtures is not just plainly to impose an alcohol-free event, rather it always comes with the heavy post match indulgence. Which is why I am currently going through one of the longest hangovers of my life.
As we all know, the match bore a heavy consequence in the title-race and the top four battle and it was only a matter of who wanted it more. Liverpool were recovering from a massive stroke of unluck and lack of confidence. United on the other hand were flying high, huge confidence levels and well, this was their only chance to take revenge against us having lost this fixture the last three times. And some times when you have the bit of luck that helps you steer further, it was always going to be a bit easy for them.
The game started as lively as expected and within five minutes Liverpool were one up, and for those who keep accusing us of boring displays, please take note of the fluidity with which the goal was scored. A String of passes starting from Torres’ back flip and ending at his neatly curved header meant Liverpool were on fire already. And this is where the bane of scoring early hit us back hard. Man United won a penalty, for a foul by Mascherano on Valencia. A quick view at the replay tells us few things. Masch committed the foul outside the box and Valencia dived diligently to make it look otherwise. Not blaming Valencia here, he had to do what he had to do. But Someone who doesn’t always do what he should is the man who goes by the name Howard Webb. Well done again. Here’s an interesting picture of Howard in Man United’s training ground.
Bad Refereeing decisions happen every now and then. But for some one to have consistently given them and against us makes me lose faith in the game. Here’s Howard Webb recent list of sins committed.
- The Non-existent penalty against Tottenham, that spurred Man United’s title challenge last year.
- The Stonewall peno for Gallas’ challenge on Stevie G.
- The Cesc Fabregas handball.
- United’s penalty against Liverpool. Gary Neville’s stud on Rodriguez wasn’t even perceived as a foul, forget the card. And Darren Fletcher kicking and scowling at Dirk Kuyt for no reason receiving the same treatment. And they call us thugs.
Now don’t mistake me for looking through the rose tinted glasses, we have had our share of bad decisions like Gerrard escaping the ban and Ngog winning a wrongful penalty. But that hardly evens out with the litany of ill fated decisions we have had that started right from the season opener against Spurs and have continued to haunt us throughout the season. The FA has rewarded Mr.Webb by giving him the go-ahead to referee in the WC 2010 in South Africa. Remember, Howard Webb received a death threat from the Polish PM for giving a 90th minute penalty in the Euros. Guess this World Cup might turn out to be too much fun after all.
Back to the game, this dealt a huge blow to the teams confidence and I reiterate, sometimes when things don’t go your side it is difficult to lift the spirits. Torres was never the same man. The rest of the half had a lot of petty scrambles, small fights and nothing really was going for the two teams. Second half went much better for United though, which I admit won them the battle. Our defence slackened a bit to give their second goal, the Park header was all too easy at the end. And then Torres missed the easiest of chances right at the depth to break my heart like a dejected man in love. So unlike of him, but then making errors is what humans do. And yesterday Torres was just a mere mortal, no god. Steven Gerrard’s attitude throughout the game also remains questionable, but then he was the one who initiated the goal and also the assist to the Torres miss.
Looking back I can’t clearly say how else we could have played the game to win it. Babel played back to back and had to miss this, Aquilani was coming off a virus and clearly wasn’t at his best, Benayoun could have started but then Maxi was too good last week to be put to bench. One guy we badly missed was Riera, he could have made the difference, could have protected Insua in the left and prevented the cross that led to the goal. But then he chose the wrong time to mouth off the manager publicly, which is wrong by all means. Hindsight is a wonderful thing in these situations. Sigh. Champions league might be far-fetched now. Everything from the board to the squad needs a lot of revamp, which the fans have been asking for years. Talks on investments are going on and it is vital we get a financial push at this stage, else the club might just be too late to be saved. Us Liverpool fans deserve more.
Everton could even pip you for the LAst Europa League spot you know 😛
That is not happening and my thoughts are not about whatever happens this season now. almost resigned to fate, and with all the curse that we had against us, it actually surprises me that we are still in contention for 4th.
Of course all the refs favour United..
To be honest, I think they are anti-Liverpool.. If it weren’t for them refs, ‘Pool would have have won the Premier League a little more than 0 times..
Hahaha. Very good. Sarcasm the last resort of the senseless , isn’t it.
You seem awfully happy after losing..
So, you’ve finally given up on waiting for Scouse victories and started doing what Pool do best – whine?
Bye-bye Torres.. Bye-bye Gerard…
lol. Bye-bye Torres.. Bye-bye Gerard.
that is seriously offending me mate. now ur next comment should be something like, BFZ should look for city or aston villa writer. 😛
So what shirt was webb wearing when Torres scuffed the penalty spot and he wasn’t even given a yellow… What about carra’s two kicks in 3 secs that only got a yellow?? Dude your deluded vision is even worse than wenger’s… SOUR GRAPES!!!
Torres kicking the pen spot was provoked by the pen decision and if you can watch better with your so called non-deluded vision, Webb was arguing with Masch and Kuyt when that happened. And ur talking abt Carragher who got an yellow for some kick u say, am talking hardly a foul given for Neville kicking on Rodriguez head
So players can react in whatever way they want when they don’t like the ref’s decision…. Bravo dude
Yeha absolutely, like Rooney has never showed dissent at Refs decision.
I see a lot of LFC haters here. Why don’t you all go sleep with the referee which is what you guys are good at.
Liverpool didn’t play bad at all, against a lesser team they surely would’ve won. what astounds me is that rafa didn’t start babel. They sorely lack creativity in the midfield, its too bad aquilani was sick he could have really made a difference. Rafa needs to get rid of lucas,kuyt and insua and needs to bring in more talented players. Torres deserves a good striking partner.
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whether the ref favours United or not, we didn’t deserve to win .. end of.
No denying that mate. Surprised it didn’t come from a manc, maybe Howard Webb is the only thing they related to in this post 🙂
I don’t know if Insua is good enough to play for us. I agree he is a young player and still learning. He is pretty good going forward but, he gets beaten too often by wingers with pace or physicality. His height doesn’t help either. Both goals were from his side.
About Insua, every young player need to brought into the first team setup slowly and for me he was pretty good in first half of the season and is looking off the form for last couple of games due to the amount of games he has played this season mainly due to Aurelio being injured most of the time or when he was fit, he had to fill in for LM. Insua is a good player but he just needs some time off which he isn’t getting with Dossena moved on and Aurelio injured
The Problem with Insua is he gets beaten by almost everyone whether it’s a Portsmouth or a United player. He always seems to chasing the ball and a tad slow for any LB when it comes to showing a reaction or putting a tackle. As Adi said he hasn’t had the benefit of a rest every now and then. But still it will be better for us, if we could buy a LB next year. We know Aurelio. official screwer of hospital nurses, since Harry Kewell.