Utd - Liverpool post match

[BigChief]

Nani is not Lionel Messi, or Ronaldo. But he is one of the best wing players in the premiership. If you don't agree with that then you don't watch enough premiership games and we'll have to agree to disagree.

[Chris]

This has to be a wind up surely?

You're making out like Nani is Lionel Messi!! He's a decent player who's got a bit better lately. He still has plenty of shockers. And Konchesky getting done time and time against doesnt not matter just because O'Shea's and Nani's crossing was ****, we'll get punished plenty of times if he keeps that level of defending up.

[BigChief]

Definitely not his biggest fan (gutted when he signed) but I thought he was all right today.

I didn't say that he was error free (Yes he was awfully positioned for the first goal) but he did contained Nani especially in the first half. His passing, crosses and clearance need improvement but he should not be a scape goat.

I saw what you saw. Mistakes, getting twisted, but keeping manure's most tricky player 'relatively' quiet. You're right he shouldn't be used as a scapegoat, if anything Carragher should - and he's a legend.

As for the instances people mention above: Koncheskey was always going to struggle against one of the premiership's best players. Any LB was going to struggle. But the 'sitter' that Nani missed was a flukey deflection which went over everyone's head as we were keeping our line pushing out, and fell perfectly (how many times does Torres get that sort of luck?) at Nani's feet.

Then there was a break down the left where Koncheskey slipped giving Nani valuable seconds to kill us off. Konchesky, and the other defenders, got back just in time to thwart a DEFINITE goal. After an unlucky slip. How many times did we get unlucky slips from their defenders?

Finally, the post incident. Agreed Konchesky should have been closer but Nani took on a world class shot that only a player of his calibre can play. However, it was very tight and hitting the post was about as much as the averages deserved there.

The rest of the time Konchesky was getting 'done', didn't matter as Nani and O Shea provided nothing special. The two 'crosses' that produced the goals from Konchesky's side were: 1) just an ordinary pass from Nani to a back peddling Berbatov, who did the spectacular 1-1000 fluke to finish. Nani did nothing special to get Berbatov in that position.

O Shea's cross was a hopeful high cross-ball closer from the half way line than our byline. Carra had it, oh no he didn't as he played like a stupid idiot all day and let Berbatov score a nothing header.

I'm not a Konchesky sympathiser, but the amount of stick he gets in his first few outings with us is certainly opening my eyes to the sort of posters we have in this forum.

[Buzzo]

Yeah well I thought Konchesky was crap. He got done time after time and he was rubbish going forward.

The worrying thing is I don't think you can fault Koncheskys effort... Just his ability. today he just seemed way out of his depth.

His delivery was also poor (though he wasn't alone there), and if he was to stay on his post he should have stopped one of Berbatovs headers (memory escapes me, think it was the last one). 3 goals conceded from crosses is very poor, not all his fault but he looks a potential weak link. Would definately have Aurelio in ahead of him.

[Mostar]

Yeah well I thought Konchesky was crap. He got done time after time and he was rubbish going forward.

Definitely not his biggest fan (gutted when he signed) but I thought he was all right today.

I didn't say that he was error free (Yes he was awfully positioned for the first goal) but he did contained Nani especially in the first half. His passing, crosses and clearance need improvement but he should not be a scape goat.

[Baracus]

Did people just forget the 1st half??

Paul Konchesky got raped by nani and on some occassions by o'shea time and time again. Utd could well have been 3-4 nil up if they had put the chances away or a decent option was picked out by nani. We were dominated and they did not even get out of gear. Time and Time again, we as a team get 'done' for pace

[Chris]

Personally I was terrified by how Nani would dominate the game and kill us. But I hardly noticed him, apart from when he was on the floor acting like a p*ssy. Credit to Konchesky for keeping him quiet.

Err this is sarcasm right?!

Nani done him about 10 times, a spell in the second half where he did him 4 or 5 times in 10 mins. He missed a sitter, and hit the post. I thought Konchesky was horrendous, defensively and on the ball, that cross just summed up his technical abilities.

[little dave hedgehog]

konch was a main culprit in putting us under too much pressure today. he turned the ball over when we were in their half just about every time we went through him on the front foot.

when every attack breaks down and we aren't in position when that happens, you're going to be defending all day. we were already having trouble getting the ball off them. don't need to sabotage our possession as well.

[Shaggy]

Yeah well I thought Konchesky was crap. He got done time after time and he was rubbish going forward.

[BigChief]

I agree but imo Konch had a decent game today. Yes his crosses when going forward were poor but defensively he was solid except on one occasion.

Agger needs to start as CB and imo we should be fine.

On No You Di'int Just Say That! To Shaggy of all people.

Personally I was terrified by how Nani would dominate the game and kill us. But I hardly noticed him, apart from when he was on the floor acting like a p*ssy. Credit to Konchesky for keeping him quiet. Shame our other defenders were feeling like generous cnuts (Carragher/Skrtel) and giving Berbatov the key to Liverpool.

[Craig_H]

**** isn't it. You did well to not respond though, very easy to get dragged into it all.

It's just words at the end of the day - words dont really have any impact on me, especially coming from nobodies who i've never met and will never see again. Some lads were reacting majorly, but i've never had a problem ignoring it.

[Mostar]

If Aurelio ever gets fit again he'll improve the back four. IMO a defence of Johnson-Carra-Agger-Aurelio looks a lot stronger and better balanced than the one we put out today.

I agree but imo Konch had a decent game today. Yes his crosses when going forward were poor but defensively he was solid except on one occasion.

Agger needs to start as CB and imo we should be fine.

[Rudo]

If Aurelio ever gets fit again he'll improve the back four. IMO a defence of Johnson-Carra-Agger-Aurelio looks a lot stronger and better balanced than the one we put out today.

Any defence with Johnson in it is a dodgy one man.

Agree with you about Aurelio though. Need him back asap.

[billy_mac]

Our full backs need to stop crosses coming in. Nowhere near enough pressure being put on the ball coming in.

We need to take confidence from the football we played in the second half. We need to learn from the crap we played in the first half. We ran into a once in a life time performance today from Berbatov, but we stood up for 20 or so minutes, I feared for 4 or 5 nil when it went to 2. I think a reality check is needed on here, what do people expect out of this team now?

They showed some positives and some crap, you can work with crap and Roy will do that, its the type of manager he is. It will be a slow burner though.

3-2 is very hard to take after coming back to 2-2, but it was a better performance than away to Man City and we'll be better for losing 3-2 than 3-0.

[Rudo]

Might be a case of seeing a different game from what i may have seen if i'd watched it on tv, but i thought we were pretty good today. First half wasnt great, but it was Man Utd away, we're in the mire at the moment and we were never going to come racing out of the traps. But we eased ourselves in and gradually asserted ourselves, while preventing them from really creating anything of note. The goal before half time was a kick in the teeth, we deserved to go in level.

2nd half started slow, and frustratingly, we didnt get ourselves going until they scored the second goal. If we went for it more before we'd conceded a two goal defecit, we might've got something. Even then, we were unlucky to lose IMO.

Our spirit and character to come back was excellent, albeit the penalty sparked us into life. Biggest frustration is that after we equalised, they were on the back foot and we had all the momentum (and should've been full of confidence). I felt the game was there for us, but we just stopped playing and went into our shell. Even with 10 mins left, we were far too deep and just inviting pressure. Their winner seemed inevitable, we were virtually rolling out the red carpet for them to come to our goal.

Overall though, i'm a bit more upbeat. If we'd played with that kind of character at City, it would've been different. 3 (or even 4) of our first 5 games have been horrible and while 5 points is disappointing, if we'd just held on against Arsenal, we'd have a healthier 7. Fine margins 'n' all.

But the excuse is gone now, those first 5 are gone now and we can at least say we wont have Arsenal, United or City again now for half a season. The 'easy' run starts now, so no more excuses. 6 points in our next 2 games (at home) is a must and could take us into the derby nicely.

Re today, i was quietly impressed with Meireles and Poulsen too, Gerrard was well disciplined & put in a real captain's display - and Cole was lively, if inconsistent. N'Gog made a difference when he came on. Torres was a mixed bag, won the penalty and the foul which led to the equaliser - but his body language was poor and he was the only Liverpool player (IIRC) who didnt come over to clap the fans - that's not on for me, he's incredibly frustrated and acting the brat right now. I'm convinced he's gone in January, or next summer at the latest, but while he's here, he needs to ****ing stop acting like a spoilt kid and man up.

Furthermore, when he's in strop mode and not performing, he cant play as a lone striker because he's far too easy to deal with. When he wants it, then yeah, for sure. But he looks disinterested at the moment and it's not on.

Fair points but we didn't deserve to go in at half-time level. Second half was more 50:50.
- I just thought United were always likely to run out winners, even when got it back to 2-2. Was still a real kick in the balls though.