English Premiership
Man. Utd 2 - 0 LIVERPOOL
Scorers:
MANU - Scholes (39min), Ferdinand (68min);
It's depressing to watch. And it's even more depressing and painful to type this post. I'm typing this with a heavy heart and all I can say is we need to stop deluding ourselves and take a good look at the team we love.
We are not good enough and we're terrible. Just terrible. Where was the passion, where were the players and where was the Liverpool spirit. Everything gone up the smoke, the title, the confidence and the morale. It's even more painful that this last blow was struck by none other than Man U, our biggest arch rival.
It was a killing blow and be honest with you, we will be struggling to get the 4th spot come end of season.I don't really know where to start off because we're just terrible from front to back.
There isn't even a single positive I can harness out of a completely inept Liverpool performance and all we can hope and pray is that we will take this harsh lesson and learn from it. But have we learnt ANYTHING after the 3-0 defeat to Everton and 1-0 to Chelsea? Players preached week in week out we need to improve but have we? Seriously, at least that 4-1 defeat to Chelsea last season was more bearable to watch because the players put in effort while we saw absolutely f*ck all from this bunch today.
We settled down well early in the game but the new Man Utd team is a completly different one from those of the previous few seasons.
They showed much hunger and determination, winning lots of second ball and attacked with pace and tenacity while Liverpool sloppily passed the ball around and then surrendering possesion. Kuyt was never in the game because there wasn't support from anyone.
The defining moment came when Mark Gonzalez found Dirk Kuyt at the back post, unmarked. But I'm sure every Liverpool fans went 'as usual, b*llocks' seeing Kuyt heading the ball straight into the hands of van der Sar. It's becoming a serious problem when we had the chance to score but failed to put it away. We were not clinical and it's really a serious problem.
From that moment on it was all one way traffic till the final whistle, with United strolling in their own ground without any troubles from the Liverpool front line. They passed the ball well, kept the ball well and found lots of spaces. It was not long before they punish the sorry Liverpool defence, who were leaking goals left right and centre for most part of this seaso. Bordeaux didn't score because they're pretty crap at finishing just like us.
The Paul Scholes goal reminded me of the defence you faced when playing against an amateur opponent on FIFA 07. Paul Scholes left totally unmarked right in the middle of the penalty box without anyone picking him up and leaving a player of his calibre there is suicidal. He scored and you can sense there is no way back for the demoralised Liverpool team.
There was no fighting spirit from anyone of the players, from Gerrard to Reina.
Everyone looked a shadow of their former self and is it any wonder they are chasing the United shadows as well. There was no passion and drive from anyone and nobody put up a performance worthy of more than a 6/10. It's like watching 11 empty shells running around with no sense or purpose, lacked ideas and imaginations. Nevermind about creating chances, we can't even defend.
Rio Ferdinand once again killed the game off with a wonderful strike. Don't take the credit away from him, but yet again, terrible defending. Where was Riise when Ferdinand was lurking at the back post? No one was around and everyone ball watching.
From then on you'll expect a normal side to at least kick into gear and try some luck. But the morale sapping second goal seemed to have K.Oed Liverpool for good and they're just walking around playing the time out. It was the longest 20 minutes in my life and I couldn't bare to continue watching Alonso/Gerrard misplacing a pass or Garcia trying to do one of his fanciful tricks that fooled nobody but his fellow team mates.
What's the problem now? I can't tell, because
it looked like the problems have snowballed into one giant one and it's rolling down the ice mountain, gathering pace. Even as an optimist, I must speak with some objectiveness and I will announced that we're not okay and we're in a crisis. Don't call it a knee jerk reaction, but that's the truth and it's staring us in the face. 11th place and trailing United 11 points and only less than a quater of the season gone? It's embarassing.
We can find lots of excuses like players being off form and such. One of the major contribution will have to be our fixture list, which has been terribly unkind to us. As I've said in pre-season, we have a tough run in ALL the way till Christmas. Oh god and
we're only half way there. It's a rocky start and it looked like the Liverpool wagon's wheels had fell off and it's struggling to even move on. And what else can we hope for?
There's always a light at the end of the tunnel. But I fear this tunnel will be a long one and I hope all you Liverpool fans can continue to endure this, for we have endured this for the last however long. It's really sad to say all this because we're sort of the long suffering fans who had seen some glimpse of hope here and there, but still got the disappointment every single season without fail. We delude ourselves into thinking 'this is our year', but we get disappointed every time. But what can we do? Hope for the best I guess..
Now it's really up to Rafa to really figure this out and to get his squad back on their feet.
We cannot afford to lose all the motivation and drive by October and then crawling our way to the finish line. Finishing 4th this season must now be THE priority no matter what they say about us still having a chance. We have to be realistic and 4th is the best we can hope for, sadly.About United Then....You guys were brilliant. It pains me to say this, but it's a fact and we can't hide. We got outclassed and outplayed in every singe aspect of the game. Even if we have the better midfielders, we failed to dominate and well done to you, Red Devils. My money are on you for the title because there's one important thing I see in you. The hunger and drive that makes players like Giggs and Solksjaer to look world class even though they're almost over the hill. We can't predict the future, but it's all looking good for the Red Devils...