My general musings from the first “grand slam Sunday” game… I’m glad no other media seems to have picked up on calling it GSS, it’s a **** idea, by a bunch of ****heads if you ask me…
Anyway, back to the day. Firstly GMPTE don’t know the heads from their arses as getting a tram to the stadium was virtually impossible – nice work there, so it was a short cab ride, which was hassle free, I had been thinking that loads of roads nearby would be closed, but we get to the edge of the Matt Busby Way very quickly, we then made our way to the Watersreach restaurant to meet a shady character who gave us two ticket books “One ov the books as ad the ‘pool vaacher ripped arter it, just ask fer Sammy, the coloured lad and tell im Dave says it’s cool”
So off we trot to the imposing North stand, to the Salford Suite entrance, I’m asking if there is a guy called Sammy about – there isn’t. So I try to explain the situation, the bloke didn’t believe a word of it “Who’s Dave?” “Who’s Sammy?” was all he’d say, while suspiciously looking me up and down… After about five minutes he says he can’t let us in, and that we’d better try the other entrance. So we try again, again no one has heard of Dave or Sammy and I’m thinking it’s a wind up. Eventually one of the guys lets us through, looking like he’d done us some huge favour! So we go up and have a beer in the Salford Suite, which was clean and tidy but felt more like a new working mens club than a “corporate” ticket. Still it was nice enough, and the seats were excellent, situated on the second tier of the North Stand, on about the 24 yard parallel, in the half we were attacking in the first half. The crowd was pretty noisy, and apart from hearing the “murderers” chant about 3 times in the whole game, I couldn’t say that it was particularly virulent, lack of wit most definitely, but not too nasty.
Now for the game from my view point, and I have to say, I haven’t seen it on TV after so it’s purely from the game and where I was sat. I’ll start from the back!
Reina looked like a bag of nerves and was very ropey in the first half, didn’t look imposing and his distribution was pretty grim at times, however it did look like he saved us a few times in the second half, at least they looked decent saves from where I was sat. In fact our defence as a whole didn’t have a great game, which I believe focused between Carragher and Skrtel, the understanding just didn’t seem to be there, in stark contrast to Vidic and Ferdinand that played together perfectly. I had the perfect viewpoint in the second half to watch our offline line operate, and it was pretty shocking on many occasions, you’d have the two fullbacks and Skrtel pushing up at one point, with Carragher dropping (crazy!) or you’d have one of the fullbacks dozing and not keeping a straight line. For me this is down to the pairing at centre half, if they’re strong and hold a good line, the two fullbacks should always know where to play, thus creating an excellent backline that can often catch the opposition offline and is difficult to play through. That categorically didn’t happen on Sunday, although it’s difficult to point the finger at any one player as to what went wrong. Other than the offside line I thought both centre backs at times struggled with Rooney, but I thought Arbeloa and Aurelio performed fairly well in nullifying Ronaldos threat, with Giggs totally absent from the game.
Mascherano and Alonso seemed to be doing ok, although didn’t offer much going forward, I can’t be arsed commenting on the red card, it was harsh but deserved; but spoke volumes about the Bennett, who was on a bit of a homer for most of the afternoon it had to be said (verified from United fans I spoke to after the game)
Biggest culprit of the day? Gerrard. I thought his first half “display” was nothing short of appalling, I can’t remember a game I’ve seen when someone in our shirt just didn’t try, and that’s exactly what it looked like in the first half. He’d lose the ball and stop, he’d hit a crap pass and not apologise, he’d make little effort to harry or chase, and basically looked like he wasn’t up for the fight. He improved after the red card when he moved position, but as one of my favourite players for years, I thought he was shocking and looked every bit a “spice boy” circa 1996.
Babel loads of talent, way too raw, but gave Brown a bit of a pasting at times, basically United looked to two man Babel at every opportunity; Kuyt looked good, and was always moving (take a note of that Gerrard!) his touch seemed to have improved from a couple of months back, and gave Evra looked nervous at times’ oh for Kuyt to have that extra yard of pace that would really change his game.
Torres was good, and didn’t get one decent ball the whole game; and “perhaps” fell over a few times too many – if he’d been playing for the opposition it would have annoyed me!
And our opponents? They are a very good side, and it’s obvious Ferguson in league games has Benitez in his pocket, which no other manager has been able to do over Rafa. In Ferdinand and Vidic they have a terrific platform, with Ronaldo a cheating, snide, disrespectful player who just cannot stop scoring goals. I also though Rooney was excellent, never giving Carragher or Skrtel a moment’s peace, and was fundamental in the United win, as much as the sending off played into their hands.
Overall, a bad game for us, but a decent (and free) day out for me…
Anyway, back to the day. Firstly GMPTE don’t know the heads from their arses as getting a tram to the stadium was virtually impossible – nice work there, so it was a short cab ride, which was hassle free, I had been thinking that loads of roads nearby would be closed, but we get to the edge of the Matt Busby Way very quickly, we then made our way to the Watersreach restaurant to meet a shady character who gave us two ticket books “One ov the books as ad the ‘pool vaacher ripped arter it, just ask fer Sammy, the coloured lad and tell im Dave says it’s cool”
So off we trot to the imposing North stand, to the Salford Suite entrance, I’m asking if there is a guy called Sammy about – there isn’t. So I try to explain the situation, the bloke didn’t believe a word of it “Who’s Dave?” “Who’s Sammy?” was all he’d say, while suspiciously looking me up and down… After about five minutes he says he can’t let us in, and that we’d better try the other entrance. So we try again, again no one has heard of Dave or Sammy and I’m thinking it’s a wind up. Eventually one of the guys lets us through, looking like he’d done us some huge favour! So we go up and have a beer in the Salford Suite, which was clean and tidy but felt more like a new working mens club than a “corporate” ticket. Still it was nice enough, and the seats were excellent, situated on the second tier of the North Stand, on about the 24 yard parallel, in the half we were attacking in the first half. The crowd was pretty noisy, and apart from hearing the “murderers” chant about 3 times in the whole game, I couldn’t say that it was particularly virulent, lack of wit most definitely, but not too nasty.
Now for the game from my view point, and I have to say, I haven’t seen it on TV after so it’s purely from the game and where I was sat. I’ll start from the back!
Reina looked like a bag of nerves and was very ropey in the first half, didn’t look imposing and his distribution was pretty grim at times, however it did look like he saved us a few times in the second half, at least they looked decent saves from where I was sat. In fact our defence as a whole didn’t have a great game, which I believe focused between Carragher and Skrtel, the understanding just didn’t seem to be there, in stark contrast to Vidic and Ferdinand that played together perfectly. I had the perfect viewpoint in the second half to watch our offline line operate, and it was pretty shocking on many occasions, you’d have the two fullbacks and Skrtel pushing up at one point, with Carragher dropping (crazy!) or you’d have one of the fullbacks dozing and not keeping a straight line. For me this is down to the pairing at centre half, if they’re strong and hold a good line, the two fullbacks should always know where to play, thus creating an excellent backline that can often catch the opposition offline and is difficult to play through. That categorically didn’t happen on Sunday, although it’s difficult to point the finger at any one player as to what went wrong. Other than the offside line I thought both centre backs at times struggled with Rooney, but I thought Arbeloa and Aurelio performed fairly well in nullifying Ronaldos threat, with Giggs totally absent from the game.
Mascherano and Alonso seemed to be doing ok, although didn’t offer much going forward, I can’t be arsed commenting on the red card, it was harsh but deserved; but spoke volumes about the Bennett, who was on a bit of a homer for most of the afternoon it had to be said (verified from United fans I spoke to after the game)
Biggest culprit of the day? Gerrard. I thought his first half “display” was nothing short of appalling, I can’t remember a game I’ve seen when someone in our shirt just didn’t try, and that’s exactly what it looked like in the first half. He’d lose the ball and stop, he’d hit a crap pass and not apologise, he’d make little effort to harry or chase, and basically looked like he wasn’t up for the fight. He improved after the red card when he moved position, but as one of my favourite players for years, I thought he was shocking and looked every bit a “spice boy” circa 1996.
Babel loads of talent, way too raw, but gave Brown a bit of a pasting at times, basically United looked to two man Babel at every opportunity; Kuyt looked good, and was always moving (take a note of that Gerrard!) his touch seemed to have improved from a couple of months back, and gave Evra looked nervous at times’ oh for Kuyt to have that extra yard of pace that would really change his game.
Torres was good, and didn’t get one decent ball the whole game; and “perhaps” fell over a few times too many – if he’d been playing for the opposition it would have annoyed me!
And our opponents? They are a very good side, and it’s obvious Ferguson in league games has Benitez in his pocket, which no other manager has been able to do over Rafa. In Ferdinand and Vidic they have a terrific platform, with Ronaldo a cheating, snide, disrespectful player who just cannot stop scoring goals. I also though Rooney was excellent, never giving Carragher or Skrtel a moment’s peace, and was fundamental in the United win, as much as the sending off played into their hands.
Overall, a bad game for us, but a decent (and free) day out for me…
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