Utd - Liverpool post match

[destinydude]

I said JJ....not JC

There's only one JJ and it's Jon Jo

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

What about Pacheco?

[red g]

What about Pacheco?

DP? don't think JC or JJ work with him at all.

[red g]

There's only one JJ and thats the fit one from big bro, innit

[destinydude]

DP? don't think JC or JJ work with him at all.

[destinydude]

John James is a piece of fckn $#!T

[BG1973]

Neither can our other full-back... who also can't control, tackle, head and most of all ****ing concentrate
- embarrassing the amount of times 37 year old Ryan Giggs went past him today.
He's a shocking defender.

inclined to agree with this. Johnson looks a bit lost both attacking and defending to me. Default option is cut inside looking for a shooting chance, anything else he looks confused.


Too much negativity in this thread through. We played pretty well yesterday, and Mereiles looks a cracking player I think, exactly what we needed.

That team we put out will beat a lot of teams once it starts to really click.

[Fredo]

Link

Roy Hodgson was hoping that a 4‑2‑3‑1 formation would prevent Manchester United getting a good supply of the ball to their front men, the rejuvenated Dimitar Berbatov and his restored partner Wayne Rooney. The early signs were that Raul Meireles and Christian Poulsen might achieve that aim and stifle United's rhythm. But their lack of attacking ambition proved telling. Fernando Torres, criticised after the team's soulless performance at Birmingham a week earlier, was too isolated. Quite simply Nani, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs provided much better support for Rooney and Berbatov than Steven Gerrard, Maxi Rodríguez and Joe Cole did for Torres (see graphic).

Liverpool's midfield trio did not need to drop so deep. Meireles was able to close down Scholes and Poulsen was holding his defensive ground, while Glen Johnson helped Rodríguez stop Patrice Evra from joining United's attacks. There was too much of an air of "what we have, we hold" about the visitors' play, but when Berbatov casually leant against an anaemic Torres resistance to head United's opener we expected a more open game. Tactically, however, Liverpool did not change, still concerned with stopping United's thrusts, particularly down the left, rather than creating.

Berbatov's wonderfully acrobatic second prompted a rethink from Roy Hodgson. Within minutes David Ngog replaced Rodríguez and moved closer to Torres. But though Liverpool scored twice shortly after his arrival, the goals owed more to good fortune than to tactics. First Jonny Evans fouled Torres in the box and Gerrard comfortably dispatched the penalty. Then the Spaniard's clever run earned a free-kick which Gerrard placed past Edwin van der Sar thanks to Darren Fletcher's decision to leave the wall.

At 2-2 Hodgson gained ambition, bringing on Milan Jovanovic, but ironically Liverpool finally lost the game only once they finally adopted a more open philosophy. When visiting Old Trafford it is difficult to strike the correct balance between defence and attack, and across different areas of the pitch. Here Liverpool were simply too nervous to succeed. Though they were able to keep the effervescent Evra quiet they conceded possession too readily elsewhere, and their most creative players were stationed too far from the striker to disturb United. If Torres is to be helped back to form, he will need more attacking intent to be shown by the players around him.

[Redspin]

Utd players in order of preference that you'd like to **** repeatedly:-

1) Nani
2) Vidic
3) Rooney
4) Scholes
5) Berbatov
6) Macheda
7) Evra
8) Fletcher
9) Van der Sar
10) Giggs
11) O'Shea

In fact the whole cunting lot of them lined up and shot in the legs.

The utter **** Evra deserves to be ranked a few places higher but generally I agree

[danperkins]

He must either change his mid-table-team-negative-****-tactics, or get the **** out of here.

And I think I saw someone give Poulsen a rating of 7 on here. More like a 2 IMO. **** player so far.

Poulsen was brilliant in the second half mate

[pondus]

Poulsen was brilliant in the second half mate

Too slow, less creativity than Mascher, and takes two minutes every time he gets the ball to decide what to do with it.

Hopefully he can get better when he gets used to the pace of the game and gets to know his teammates better.

[Neil Young]

Too slow, less creativity than Mascher, and takes two minutes every time he gets the ball to decide what to do with it.

Hopefully he can get better when he gets used to the pace of the game and gets to know his teammates better.

Too true.

Here's hoping.

[Mr Darko]

Does anyone else think the Media (tabloids, radio, pundits, commentators) are over overreacting far too much about this defeat or am I just being bias/naive?

All I see/hear is how United embarrassed us and exposed all our weaknesses, that we're nothing but a mid-table team now.

The way I see it.

1. They were the favourites to win this game, as they are against almost every other team at home, except Chelsea which odds would probably place as a draw.

We lost by one goal, if you take Berbatov's 'wonder' goal out of the equation it would have been 2-2. It's not like he aimed that in the back of the net, it was a shot-to-nothing FFS - he was about to be closed down.

2. The fact that Berbatov is suddenly an 'amazing' player once again because of his hat-trick. It was more our poor defending rather than him unleashing his 'striker genius'. His first, Torres was left to mark him and he was standing behind him which essentially meant Berba had a free hit, which he took well.

As said Berba's 2nd goal was a wonder goal. Probably goal of the season and I doubt he'll score another like that throughout the rest of his career - it's not like Berba knew it was going it was it.

His 3rd goal was just poor defending too. Geez it ****s me off the way the media make him out to be some genius now and that he's destined for 'footballer of the year'. It's not even like he took around 5 of our players like Messi does, is it? They were all from crosses. If we had a semi-decent left-back none of that would have happened.

I bet Berba won't score another hat-trick this season.

3. They claim we didn't threaten them or make any chances. I agree we hardly made any chances or looked to create them for Torres, but the two we did make for him, Torres was hacked down by blatently, both fairly easy goal-scoring opportunities, he would have scored both of them. Man United don't give a **** about getting carded if it stops the threat. Same happened again when Torres had the ball and Rooney hacked him down (the dirty ****ing goblin).

4. Sorry for the long post, I just needed to vent. It just pisses me off hearing how United embarrassed us and Fergie's comments that United should have been 10-0 up at half-time and Torres is a 'dirty cheat'.

IMHO Fergie's bitterness is due to his failure at United surpassing us during his reign. With Chelsea looking unstoppable United wont get that 19th league title and it pisses him off. Also United won't win the Champions League this year, can't see them getting past either of Chelsea, Barcalona, Madrid or Bayern at the moment. It's a downward spiral for Fergie/United, they may win the Carling/FA cup but the prize money and reputation for those competitions is hardly going to attract big-name signings is it? With Chelsea likely to win the league this year and having a good shot at Champions League their reputation is only going to get enhanced and subsequently attract big-names making them a stronger and stronger club this making it harder for United to compete with them.


I hope we get to play and destroy United in the FA/Carling cup, I can't wait 6 months to play them again.

[DannyMan2006]

At 2-2 Hodgson gained ambition, bringing on Milan Jovanovic, but ironically Liverpool finally lost the game only once they finally adopted a more open philosophy.

I guarantee that is crap. Brining on Jovanovic was a defensive move, I would put my house on it.

Meireles was getting torn a new one on the right wing and so Roy put Joe Cole on the right to stop that threat and Jova on the left to keep the balance of the side.

I think if he wanted to stick at 442 it was a change that needed to be made. I guess he thought Jova would be more solid than Babel.

Personally I would have took Torres off and gone 4231 with N'Gog up top.

[Kenneth]

I guarantee that is crap. Brining on Jovanovic was a defensive move, I would put my house on it.

Meireles was getting torn a new one on the right wing and so Roy put Joe Cole on the right to stop that threat and Jova on the left to keep the balance of the side.

I think if he wanted to stick at 442 it was a change that needed to be made. I guess he thought Jova would be more solid than Babel.

Personally I would have took Torres off and gone 4231 with N'Gog up top.

Hmm. If you want a player to add defensive grit in front of a dodgy rightback, the name Joe Cole instantly springs to mind.