Liverpool vs Man Utd Post Match gloating

[JBOX]

I can't believe the bull**** about Carra's tackle. It was hard and mistimed. As for Rafael's, he didn't even make contact. Call me old fashioned but these games need more of the same. ****ing Nani is a cheating pussy and personally if his leg had broken in half and he was forced to shower on one leg for life so be it. He sums up everything I hate about football today in one player. A cheat. A pussy. A fancy dan. Some of you have no idea. Daglish used to take heavy hitsgame after game and still turn on the skill. That's why today game is full of Ronaldo's and the like. Kick them hard t their own teeth. Carra is a legend. Brilliant day.nd force them to ear

Thing is, Carra caught Nani and didn do much damage(FFS, he got straight up and ran over to the ref!). And he was actually in tears like a child! He went off with embarrassment!

If Lucas didnt jump to get out of the way of Rafael's tackle, he would off had his legs removed. It was more like a dropkick than a tackle.

[Drago]

I've said it before, there was no difference in the two tackles. Except for Lucas getting out of the way. Both were pretty dangerous.

Nani got a little gash, it's football, sometimes people get hurt.

Honestly though he should be banned for crying on the pitch. Seriously like, crying over a gash? Even my sister texted me about that laughing about the "little boy in white in tears"

[Daniel 7]

Ha! Seen a comment there on BBC:
''Nani are you OK are you OK Nani? You got hit by, You got struck by a Smooth Carragher......''

I posted it about 3 hours ago

[TheElephantMan]

I've never seen a footballer cry like that before, it's the most embarrassing scene I've ever observed. Nani is a disgrace to football, sport and the human race. Carragher was right to smash into him because he is a complete dick. Football is better without Nani.

[JBOX]

I've said it before, there was no difference in the two tackles. Except for Lucas getting out of the way. Both were pretty dangerous.

Nani got a little gash, it's football, sometimes people get hurt.

Honestly though he should be banned for crying on the pitch. Seriously like, crying over a gash? Even my sister texted me about that laughing about the "little boy in white in tears"

In fairness, Gerrard got a straight red for a lesser tackle in the FA cup match. Watched them both again there... CAN NOT GET OVER HOW MUCH OF A BITCH MAID NANI IS!
http://soccertvlive.blogspot.com/ --->has both tackles.

[Rudo]

James Lawton: It's a scandal that Carragher will get away with his assault on Nani
United are in trouble. Whatever happens between now and the season's end, they have to be remade, most urgently in midfield. There, they reeked of decline

Monday, 7 March 2011

This was a brilliant and complete Liverpool victory. It confirmed so many of the hopes raised by Kenny Dalglish on his return to Anfield.

At the same time it was a devastating exposure of the weaknesses that, until the last few days, have lurked not so far below the surface of Manchester United's resilient but often unconvincing challenge for their 12th Premier League title.

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Yet, if this important football match bears huge implications, especially for Arsenal – now just three points behind United with a game in hand and with a goal deficit that might be swept away in just one burst of virtuosity – none of it was momentous enough to provide even a wisp of a smokescreen for the scandal that lay at its heart.

At the end of a week of refereeing controversy it was that Jamie Carragher was merely given a yellow card for a tackle on Nani so sickening, so dangerous, that it rendered more farcical than ever the insistence of the football authorities that they cannot revisit extreme cases of negligence, irresponsibility or – let's not fail to explore the full range of possibilities in this case – outright failure of nerve by a match official.

Phil Dowd was close at hand, was surrounded by protesting United players and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard – who appeared to be suggesting that his team-mate was not guilty of one of the worst fouls to disfigure any ground in recent memory – and then administered two yellow cards, one to Carragher, still protesting his innocence, and the other to Edwin van der Sar, incredulous that a tackle of such crude violence could elicit such a mild punishment.

Sometimes you have to despair of the inability of football to police itself – and of those who watch it to separate their tribal instincts from the evidence of their own eyes.

We had another example of this after an incident that followed hard on the Carragher tackle when Rafael, United's young Brazilian full-back, was yellow-carded for a tackle on Lucas, a moment after the latter's team-mate Maxi Rodriguez had come at him thigh-level.

Rafael was inflamed, no doubt, and his tackle was reckless – but his feet were low, unlike Carragher's, whose boot hit Nani's standing leg shin-high – and Lucas was unscathed. However, this did not prevent Rafael being booed relentlessly through the rest of the match.

Some will say Nani's notoriety in the play-acting department worked against his outrage and that of his team-mates – especially when he got to his feet to join in the protests before falling again – but you didn't have to be a drama critic to detect authenticity in his tears and his shock or, as United's most threatening player, his departure on a stretcher. Sometimes there really is a wolf in the grounds and yesterday his name was Carragher.

This may offend some Merseyside sensitivities – and we all know what a sterling professional Carragher has been down the years – but you had to be living on another planet not to be revolted by this piece of action. Nani wasn't tackled – he was, in effect, assaulted – and we can re-run the film a thousands times without a softening of that verdict.

Certainly it will not do for Dalglish – who was hinting before the game that Sir Alex Ferguson's criticism of officials tends to work in his favour – to offer only this bromide: "It's not correct to talk about incidents because the match was played in a great spirit."

Silence, you have to say, would have been the better option.

Did the absence of Nani have a decisive effect on the outcome? It's not the point but, of course, the answer is plainly no.

If you had drawn up a list of the advantages of Dalglish's appointment – one which will now surely be made permanent – you would have spent most of this match ticking them off. Most striking, of course, is the fact that Liverpool now look like Liverpool again, a team of conviction and self-belief, one capable of growing before your eyes.

In terms of manpower, the differences between the team that finished last season so bedraggled and lurched into this one so unconvincingly is slight enough but the psychological change is huge. Luis Suarez is a player of thrilling nerve and touch and Raul Meireles continues to develop as a force of brimming value.

Dirk Kuyt, who has always been a superior scavenger, surely put down a solid footprint on Dalglish's new Liverpool with a hat-trick that owed everything to his trademark resolve to turn over every stone in pursuit of victory.

United? Five days after crumbling at Chelsea, they again lacked their own Dutch boy to put his finger in the hole in the seawall. No doubt, Ferguson will ransack all his reserves of defiance in an effort to get his wounded team over the line, but, if Arsenal can find some of the resolve that deserted them so profoundly against Birmingham City in the League Cup final and at home to Sunderland, United are clearly in trouble.

Whatever happens between now and the season's end, they have to be re-made, most urgently in the midfield. There, they reeked of decline. Nor does it help that Wayne Rooney appears to be operating from an imperfectly working memory.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-its-a-scandal-that-carragher-will-get-away-with-his-assault-on-nani-2234282.html?

It was an inept performance – almost as shocking as that tackle.

[Drago]

I'll quote you Rudo. I'm not reading that ****.

[JBOX]

And Suarez with the hairpull on Rafael after his tackle is hilarious!

[TheElephantMan]

And Suarez with the hairpull on Rafael after his tackle is hilarious!

I've seen it three times now and I don't think he knew who the culprit was!

[Drago]

It was Carrick, wasn't it?

[JBOX]

I've seen it three times now and I don't think he knew who the culprit was!

Yeah, he looks around and Carrick is just pushing him away! Hope FA dont do anything about it. The ref obviously didnt see it so it wont be in his match report.

[MrMichael]

How is Carra only getting a yellow for what was admittedly, a very poor tackle that should have been a red, and not getting punished afterwards as the ref dealt with it, any different from Wayne Rooney getting away with elbowing people in the face because the ref aopparently dealt with it at the time?

Tackles like that is what is destroying the game.

Although I agree it was a bad tackle Arn, that's pretty silly. Did you ever see the likes of Tommy Smith and Graeme Souness play?

[Rudo]

Liverpool prey on Man Utd weakness
Post categories: Liverpool, Manchester United, Premier League
Phil McNulty | 21:10 UK time, Sunday, 6 March 2011
Anfield

Manchester United left Anfield surrounded by a wall of silence considerably more resolute and unified than the flimsy barricade so easily dismantled by Liverpool on an abject afternoon for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Perhaps Ferguson and United's chastened players were hoping the harrowing 90 minutes they endured at an exultant Anfield, especially at the flying footwear of Liverpool's new attacking idol Luis Suarez, was merely a bad dream.

No such luck for the silent knight. The black-out could just as easily have been attributed to acute embarrassment because the brutal reality and the real story was a defeat deservedly inflicted by a Liverpool team revived under Kenny Dalglish and galvanised by the sight of a United team that looked jaded and lacked - a factor of great significance - the absent Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

United are still favourites to claim the 19th title that will put them out on their own ahead of Liverpool, but they may need to rely on the generosity and failings of their rivals unless their form improves.

The sullen mood of Ferguson and his players was in sharp contrast to the smiles of Dalglish and the celebrations sweeping around Anfield at the final whistle as Liverpool put their recovery back on track after the loss at West Ham United.

Dalglish turned 60 on Friday, a landmark acknowledged in song by the Kop, but the gift he most wanted is to be back in charge at Liverpool - a pleasure encapsulated with the words: "Every day is my birthday when I go into Melwood."

And what joy Dalglish and his team gave Anfield by inflicting pain on United while revelling in the pleasure of the deeds of £23m Uruguayan Suarez and a hat-trick from Dirk Kuyt, whose finishes may well have covered the shortest aggregate yardage of any treble in the game's history.

Kuyt covered his usual distance to torment United's uncertain rearguard but even this most modest of players will happily bow to the prominence of Suarez, whose twisting penalty box slalom past Rafael, Wes Brown and Michael Carrick to set up his first goal was worthy of Dalglish in his pomp. It was an electrifying, decisive moment.

Suarez never wasted a moment standing still. He is constantly on the move, looking to make mischief, preying on defenders' nerves. He even has an uncanny knack of sailing past opponents just at the point when he looks to be falling over.

Kuyt's success after reverting back to his former role of striker gives Dalglish nice selection complications, especially with Liverpool's comfortable margin of supremacy allowing him the luxury of giving £35m Andy Carroll a brief debut outing as substitute.

Nani set up Kuyt's second with a misdirected header only he can fully explain while United's desperate display was summed up in the moment the normally reliable Edwin van der Sar spilled Suarez's free-kick into Kuyt's path for his third after 65 minutes.

Javier Hernandez's stoppage-time strike cannot be dignified with the description of a consolation goal. There was not a jot of consolation here for United, who have suffered two consecutive losses and have looked out of gas after a vibrant first 45 minutes at Chelsea.

Sadly the game did not come without its dark side, played out in the moments before half-time when Nani's misery was compounded by an horrific challenge by Jamie Carragher that saw him stretchered off.

The tackle was followed by scenes of confrontation involving players from both sides, repeated seconds later when Rafael flew into Lucas having been clipped by Maxi Rodriguez.

Referee Phil Dowd spared Carragher from what should have been the straightest of straight red cards, then perhaps felt obliged to show similar excessive leniency to Rafael when he should also have gone.

Officials sometimes win misplaced praise for simply keeping 22 players on the pitch. Carragher and Rafael deserved to go and neither manager would have had a complaint had they done so.

Liverpool's win hardly shapes a season but it is a marker for the future, such was the emphatic nature of the triumph. Sharper, more powerful, more mobile, more pacey from first to last on this day at least, it was another demonstration of why Dalglish's permanent appointment must now be little more than a formality.

Anfield is a different environment from the dismal arena it was under Roy Hodgson. Optimism has returned and the mere sight of Dalglish in the dug-out gives comfort to supporters disillusioned not so long ago.

United's performance must be accompanied by the mitigating circumstances that saw them stripped of Ferdinand and Vidic, but this stale affair gave off the air of a team that must now be subjected to rebuilding irrespective of what successes may or may not come this season.

Even if United win the Premier League and claim other silverware, and history tells us this must never be discounted, it is not a side to compare with Ferguson's teams of the past in a season that can hardly be placed in a golden era for domestic football. This is a side producing a growing body of evidence, of which this defeat was the latest example, that it is reaching the end of the line in its current form.

Chris Smalling remains an impressive work in progress, but some harsh lessons came his way courtesy of the movement and work-rate of Suarez and Kuyt while Brown gave an object lesson in why Ferguson has turned a blind eye to him for much of this season.

Paul Scholes struggled to make an impact in his second high-octane game inside a week and received little help from Carrick. Carrick's contract extension has been greeted with a wave of indifference from United's fans and his performances have been at a level that would have seen him eased towards Old Trafford's exit in the not-so-distant past as opposed to being rewarded with a long-term deal.

Defeat will have been even more galling for Ferguson because Liverpool themselves are entering a period of heavy transition when they will reconstruct a squad that is still top heavy with players ill-equipped to meet the standards Dalglish will eventually demand.

Ferguson was linked with £100m of transfer business on the morning of this defeat, no doubt determined to fulfil the promise he has made to himself to leave United in rude health when he departs and also promises made to Wayne Rooney - utterly anonymous at Anfield - about squad strengthening after he threatened to leave earlier this season.

Names like Ashley Young, Jack Rodwell and Jordan Henderson may provide pace and fresh legs but Ferguson must also find a central midfielder of genuine world-class because inspiration in that area has been lacking for too long this season.

United's instinctive resilience and winning mentality, a quality that sets them apart and has sustained them for so long despite indifferent form this season, puts them in pole position to win the title but once this campaign reaches its conclusion Ferguson must reach for the Glazers' chequebook.

Liverpool will enter a new era of their own this summer when John W. Henry and the Fenway Sports Group put their stamp on the club. And it is a new era that will surely be led by Dalglish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2011/03/liverpool_increase_man_utd_wor.html

[Mostar]

Honestly more excited about Suarez than I was when Torres joined us long ago. He has MORE than Torres because he is clearly a playmaker and can also score goals. He has better work rate, better determination and desire to win. Torres would drop his head if they were losing but Suarez is a fighter. The most exciting player iv seen for a long time. He's gonna be a kop legend and Torres will be long forgotten as he slips into mediocrity with Chelsea!!

Suarez has more to his game than Nando, his technique and touch are far superior to Torres although Suarez still has a long way to go yet until he is at Torres's level. What i have noticed out of all his attributes is his movement and balance, its absolutely incredible and a breath of fresh air along with Meireles in a somewhat stagnant LFC team.

Good post

[Qantaga]

What a ****ing day. Brilliant game, great result and solid performances all round. Fans ****ing rocked it today with the birthday wishes! Was ****ing brilliant.

I turned down my sisters manc boyfriend to watch the game with.... big mistake

\Q