Liverpool 0 Manchester United 1 - Prem (Dec 16 2007)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 0 Manchester Utd 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sunday 16 December 2007 Star Man – Sami Hyypia

 

 

 

 

Two weeks ago we thumped Bolton 4-0 to go above Manchester United in the table. Hard to believe when you look at the table this evening. The needless defeat at Reading last week, coupled with United’s annual smash and grab act at Anfield has pretty much ended any lingering hopes we may have had of mounting a title charge. Thankfully in between we managed to progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League, and that competition again looks to represent our best chance of glory.

I’ve listened to the local radio phone ins, spoken to a number of mates, and read some of the views on the forum. The general consensus seems to be that we just weren’t good enough and that the mancs’ extra quality proved to be the difference. I agree that we weren’t good enough, but don’t try and tell me they were better than us because they simply weren’t.

Defensively I’ve got to hand it to them, they were rock solid and despite us having a few decent chances I never really felt we looked particularly threatening. They had a gameplan to come and defend in numbers, and nick something from a breakaway or set piece - as they do every single year - and as usual, it worked.

Their defence bossed our forwards, and their midfield stopped ours from creating anything. Thing is, we can say exactly the same. Was Giggs even on the pitch? Did Rooney do anything other than have the shot that led to the goal? Did Tevez do anything other than poach that goal? And then we have Ronaldo, who aside from one dazzling piece of play that should have led to a goal for Rooney, contributed nothing other than a series of dives.

They were very comfortable in defence, but so were we. They beat us, but they didn’t outplay us and I don’t think they deserved to win. It was just like last year, although in fairness we probably played better in last year’s fixture. The point I’m making is that there was hardly anything between the sides once again, but yet again we’ve come away on the losing side.

How do we address that? Well a bit of luck would go a long way towards sorting it out, but leaving luck aside, we have to admit that we do lack quality in certain areas. Their attacking players may not have done much in this game, but they are proven quality and they would all walk into our side.

We had too many passengers in this game. Dirk was his usual self, running around, working hard, and giving the ball away repeatedly. Kewell looked way off the pace, which is understandable perhaps as he is still trying to get up to full fitness. Yossi was just completely bossed by Evra, and not even Gerrard or Torres could raise their games to anything above average.

So from our point of view, we didn’t do enough creatively, and United looked comfortable. As comfortable as they were though, I’d say our defence were even more so. They scored from a set-piece, and had one more chance on the break in the second half. Aside from that, they never threatened. So I’m not having it that ‘their extra quality was the difference’ or that they were the better side. Not having it at all.

Had we scored first, maybe it would have been a different game. I believe we’d have won, but perhaps if they’d had to chase the game we would have seen more of them as an attacking threat? As it was, they didn’t NEED to attack as they nicked a goal and then just ensured they kept what they had. It was up to us to break them down, and we couldn’t. We have no-one to blame for that but ourselves, but I’m not having it that we were outplayed because we weren’t. Arsenal outplayed us for long periods, Manchester United didn’t.

Maybe some of our injured players could have made a difference. Certainly we missed Alonso’s ability to spread the play quickly, and we missed the natural width that Pennant would have provided. It’s no excuse though, as we should be able to cope and the side we put out was a very strong one.

There were some on the phone-ins complaining about the team selection, but come on, this was the same eleven that trounced Marseille. Had Rafa changed it, he’d have got so much shit for that. Obviously I’d prefer Crouch to Kuyt, but even I couldn’t argue with an unchanged side as it was the right thing to do given how they played in midweek. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.

It could have been different had we taken our chances. We had two cleared off the line and Torres should have done better with a header from close range. I say he should have done better, as that’s what I thought at the time, but I sit a long way from the Anny Road end and maybe I’m being harsh. Having not seen it on tv (and not likely to as there’s no way I’m watching any highlights of this) I could be wrong about that, but I felt it was a glorious chance wasted.

When something like that happens in a big game, I always fear the worst as usually we end up paying the price. We did last season, when they scored in front of the Kop right at the end from a set piece. And we did this season, as they scored in front of the Kop from a set piece again, this time at the end of the first half rather than the second. At least it give us 45 minutes to try and recover, although we could have had 145 minutes and wouldn't have scored.

It was a bad goal from our point of view. Rooney somehow found acres of space on the edge of the box as the corner was pulled back to him, and when he drilled it into the box Tevez stuck out a leg and diverted it into the roof of the net. I don’t know who’s job it would have been to pick up Rooney, but whoever it was must have fallen asleep.

Perhaps that’s a glitch in the zonal marking system? If everyone is in zones and someone pulls out to the edge of the box, who’s job is it to pick them up? Is there a spare man who is responsible for that? I’d assume there must be, I hope so anyway as you know other sides will have noticed that goal and I expect we’ll see others trying it now. United obviously did their homework.

It was the only time they had threatened, despite the helping hand they kept receiving from the Main Stand linesman who missed at least five clear offsides. I thought Carra was going to have an aneurysm at one point, he was berating the official so much. Thankfully his ineptitude didn’t cost us, but it was infuriating at the time.

The goal took the wind out of our sails, but I think the booking Steven Gerrard picked up also had an impact on us. He was heavily involved early on, but did seem a little too fired up. I didn’t see what happened between him and Anderson, and I had no idea why they were both carded. I’ve been told that they squared up to eachother and Gerrard put his head in the Brazilian’s face. If he did, that’s a needless booking. A minute or so later he dived in on the same player – who predictably made a meal of it – and he was a bit fortunate that the referee chose to be lenient. At this stage I was convinced he’d be sent off, but he managed to cool down and stay out of bother for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately it seemed to take something away from him, and he wasn’t anywhere near as influential as he has been of late, and he played very deep. Whether that was because he was told too, or just the way it tuned out because of how the game went I don't know, but we missed his attacking presence in the box. He did make one surge forward to get on the end of a good ball in from Kewell, but it was an awkward height and he couldn't direct his volley. We needed to see more of that from him, but it just didn't happen.

With the skipper having a quiet day, and Torres being completely dominated by Ferdinand and Vidic, it needed someone else to step up. No-one did.

Supersub Ryan Babel did his best, and certainly gave United something new to worry about. I actually thought he’d scored with that rasping shot, and couldn’t believe it when the ball went wide. It looked in all the way to me, but when that never went in I think I knew then we were never going to score.

We had some promising situations from set pieces, but each time we wasted them with poor shots. It wasn’t helped by the referee allowing their wall to stand seven yards away, but nevertheless our shooting was poor.

Crouch’s arrival didn’t make much difference, as we resorted to lumping it to him and United dealt with it relatively easily. He had one shot that went wide after some nice link up play with Torres, but neither he nor El Nino got the kind of service they need. The crosses to Crouch were poor, and the through balls to Torres were non-existant.

There was a sense of inevitability about this defeat, we should be used to it by now I guess. Ferguson comes here with the same plan every year, and it always fucking gets him the result. His tactics are as negative as any side that come here, and are in total contrast to Arsenal, who came here and passed us off the park at times. Whilst it continues to work, he’ll continue to do it, and it’s up to us to find a way of breaking them down.

Taking our chances would be one way of doing it. Bringing in better players and therefore creating a greater number of chances would be another. Rafa Benitez will have been trying to persuade the owners that we need to do the latter, but I expect it will fall on deaf ears.

I’m not even going down that road though. I’m thoroughly disillusioned with what’s going on at the club at the moment, but a report about a defeat to Manchester United is bad enough without bringing other issues into the equation, so they can wait for another day.

Star man was between the two centre backs and Mascherano. I thought the little Argentine was brilliant defensively, he won loads of tackles and was constantly closing down the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo. He offered little in an attacking sense though and gave the ball away a fair bit, so I’m going to give it to Sami who I thought played very well again.

Special mention to Riise as well. Before the game I’m sure everyone was worried about the prospect of the out of form Norwegian coming up against Ronaldo, but defensively I thought he was really solid. Ok, his shooting was terrible and his crossing wasn’t great, but at least he did his job defensively and I thought he had a decent enough game.


Team: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise (Aurelio); Benayoun, Gerrard, Mascherano, Kewell (Babel); Kuyt (Crouch), Torres: