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Manchester United 1 Liverpool 1 (Oct 20 2019)


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Report by
Dave Usher

 

While it was a massive relief to get that late equaliser, the question needs to be asked; just what the fuck was that? Why do our players go to Old Trafford and completely forget how to play football?

 

It’s mad. Klopp’s “Mentality Monsters” (and they are, I’m not using that sarcastically) show up in Salford every year and complete shit the bed.

 

I don’t get it. I really thought this year would be different. I saw all the cynicism from fellow Reds predicting a 1-0 defeat because “it’s THEM” and “it’s THERE”. I understood why they were taking that approach as we never play well there and all the build up to the game was how great we are and how shite they are, and that this was the year we finally proved it.

 

It felt like we were being set up for a fall, but the bottom line is we are miles better than them and having completely fucked this game up last year I thought we’d learn from that and set the record straight. Instead we were just as bad and even after leaving it 24 hours to see if I calmed down, I’m still just as pissed off as I was during the game.

 

As great as these lads have been for us and as much as I love them all, I’d love five minutes with them to just tear a massive strip off them.

 

Let’s get this straight. Man United are fucking shit. They were shit last year too. We should be fucking battering them. If we’d played anywhere near our usual level we would have. But we didn’t. Yet again. We produced our worst performance since… I dunno, probably Belgrade or Naples last season.

 

The question is why? Don’t give me any of that shit about what United did tactically. Get the fuck out of here with that shit. You’re trying to tell me that Solksjaer has the coaching acumen to do what virtually no other coach in Europe has been capable of? No, it’s not that. It’s got fuck all to do with anything they did. It’s all about what we did. Or specifically, what we didn’t do. 

 

United didn’t do anything special in terms of tactics. They didn’t even play especially well. They played like the plucky, bottom half of the table side they now are. They got behind the ball, they scrapped and they tried to break with two pacy forwards when they had the chance. They time wasted and they rode their luck.

 

They were basically Sheffield United, only not as good. And yet we needed a late equaliser from Adam Lallana of all people to spare our blushes. I’m seething about it, so imagine how angry this report would be if we hadn’t got a point.

 

 

This is just a teaser, click to view the full article

 

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Our gloomy predictions realised Dave. Gutted. And I mean that, gutted.

 

Judging by your report and the match thread, Atkinson was as awful as ever (I just read that the Echo reported United apparently committed NO fouls between the 22nd and 72nd minute). As you rightly say, who is surprised?

 

I say again though, you cannot underestimate the adverse effect small refereeing decisions can make on a game. The big decisions too, but the little fouls, the break-up of play at key points, they're the ones that can really hurt. Taken individually, move along, there's nothing to see here. But over the course of a game? Massive. And in the short period I watched live, there were plenty of those nothing decisions, every one of which went their way. 

 

Nothing though gets away from turning in a turd of a performance. 

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Agreed, it's infuriating the way we play in an intimidating atmosphere, Goodison aswell as Old Trafford. It's almost the one flaw of this team, living up to the pressure of big match expectations.

Nothing childish about being pissed off about that, it shouldn't happen with professionals.

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I'd actually wiped the memory of that early Firmino effort out of my mind it was so bad. It was probably the first of many times where I was also screaming 'what the fuck was that?' at the telly. Ah well, at least we didn't lose and, as you mentioned, at least this game came early on in the season rather than during the run in like last year. The annoying thing is City will go there and make them look exactly like the bottom half shitbags they really are.

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This is one of those games where I wish somebody on a TV show somewhere would get a panel of FA cunts to dissect Atkinson's performance on screen, particularly in the first half.  It's either ineptitude on a grand scale or it's clear bias.  Either one should be enough to have him immediately removed from the Premiership rota of cunts in black.

Are the FA proud that one of their referees performed like that with millions watching ?  And that cunt Atkinson has form for this kind of shit, so it wasn't even a surprise how it turned out.

We stank the place out for sure, but it was fucking hard work against 12 men.

It'll be interesting to see if the Manc cunts put in the same kind of shift against their noisy neighbours.  I'm not holding my fucking breath on that one.

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Overall I agree, but I think you overestimate the player`s mentality.

 

Yes, they can produce a miracle against Barca in a situation where they have nothing to lose, and they can dig out results and grab late winners against lesser opponents because of the confidence Klopp has given the Squad. But Old Trafford has always been the most difficult place to go and the  biggest mental challenge.

 

When our world class players suddenly misplaces easy passes, makes awful decision and not even give a real fight, you have to question their mental strength. They are not "mentality monsters" in my eyes until they go to OT and show their superiority and absolutely destroy the mancs. 

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Great report Dave, puts words to the total frustration of playing like that, against them, again.

 

It's a bit of therapy, I can move on now and look forward to the next match.

 

I thought VAR might be good. And think it still might be one day. But here and now, it is fucking shite.

 

 

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Old Trafford isn't the toughest place to go because they're shite. These lads go to much tougher places and play far better than they do here. Look at all the teams who have won at Old Trafford int he last couple of years. It's not a tough place to go, it's just a run of the mill league game when you take all the hype out of it. That's what we need to do, see it for what it is. A league game against a mid-lower table side.

 

I don't think there are question marks about their mentality at all, they've proved they've got balls of steel time and again. They do have a mental block of playing United at Old Trafford though. I realise this is a little contradictory, but I don't think it's fair to question their mental toughness base on this one fixture a year (I take the point about Goodison, but there are mitigating circumstances for how we've played there, such as fixture congestion and rotation). 

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I remember in the 90's our season would often be over pretty early and the only thing that would brighten it up would be turning those twats over. it was kind of like a cup final once off big game. Its come full circle now both Everton and the Mancs now treat us turning up at their kips as a cup final. 

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5 minutes ago, piphomer said:

I might be alone here but I didn't really think it was a foul on Big Div...

Tackle from behind. Doesn't get the ball. Kicks the player. Its the very definition of a foul.

Oirgi certainly milked it but he was caught.

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35 minutes ago, piphomer said:

I might be alone here but I didn't really think it was a foul on Big Div...

I agree that there wasn't a huge amount of contact in it. I had more of an issue with Atkinson blowing us up for absolutely everything. A City fan posted this on Twitter.

 

'Liverpool have dropped points in 9 of the last 47 games (19%). Atkinson has reffed them 9 times in that time, dropping points 4 times (44.4%). City have dropped points in 15 of the last 85 games (17.64%). Atkinson has reffed us [CITY] 7 times, dropping points 4 times (57.14%).

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It was very disappointing but I think the nail's head here is, everyone was saying winning here would be a piece of piss. But, to be honest, Id still have taken the draw before kick off. Why? Well I guess in part because when were were in our pomp through the 70s and 80s, these twats were nearly always getting the better of us and it is almost back to those times again.

 

I didnt think we played well against Napoli (although it was better than the previous season). I didnt think we played well at Sheff United. And I didnt think we played well against Leicester either.

 

So in that context, I can see why we didnt play well here. Im not say solskjaer is a tactical genius either but his team did stop both Robbo and Trent marauding forward. Lallana's goal apart, neither of them were putting in good crosses either.

 

united are just a bogey side to us like Leicester are and Napoli could become if we played them often enough. No one will convince me VAR should not have ruled rashford's goal off. It's an old cliche but we played 13 men on Sunday.

 

Bobby seems to have Ian Rush syndrome when playing against them but even Rushie came good eventually. Did we miss Mo? Ive been a bit hacked off with Mo's decision making of late but unfortunately, it didnt work for his replacement, Divock, on the day.

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I always wondered how Mr Ush came to start TLW and now it is clear.

 

Job Interview

Boss- 'So Dave what talents do you have...if any?'

Dave-' I have an uncanny ability to identify a twat before anyone else...'

 

Slowly reaches into his manbag and grasps the handle of a frying pan.

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5 hours ago, piphomer said:

I might be alone here but I didn't really think it was a foul on Big Div...

That was a foul all day long and twice on a Sunday.

Catches big Div in the soft tissue at the back of the knee.  No protection on that spot, fucking painful and glaringly obvious.  It takes an utter cunt of Twatkinson's standard to not give it.

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Just watched the review show with Neil Mellor on LFC TV and I feel a little differently about it now.

 

I was so blinded by fury at how we played in the first half that my head was up my arse and I didn't even notice the tactical changes made in the second. The second half wasn't great but it wasn't as bad as I felt it was at the time.

 

Mellor made the point that the VAR ref is an inexperienced official with only 15 PL games under his belt, and none of them involving big six clubs. So he was NEVER going to over-rule Martin Atkinson.

 

The foul was worse than I thought too, because he actually fouls him twice! He kicks him on his left calf and then he catches his right leg with his follow through. Terrible that Atkinson didn't see it, and even worse that it wasn't over-ruled by the YTS jabroni in the TV room.

 

I actually have a simple solution to this VAR bollocks. Just stick Clattenberg in the video booth as his ego is such that he'll happily over rule anyone that has got it wrong because he doesn't give a fuck. 

 

He's also the best ref we've had in about 15 years (probably since Durkin retired). 

 

Stick Clatts in charge.

 

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