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After an undeserved win last week United were back to losing ways as they went down to defeat at Brighton. Bit unlucky actually, they played alright and but for a freakishly funny disallowed goal they might have won. Danny Welcrap has started the season well with goals against Everton and now United. If he can score against Arsenal and City too this season I might have to start putting some respect on his name. That's a very big IF though. Big Games James has started the season very well too and almost made it 2-0 as Brighton were in the ascendancy. Welbeck was denied by the bar but then United equalised with a massively deflected Diallo shot and the game suddenly became very open. Brighton were throwing men forward and got caught by a quick counter that ended with Fernandes crossing to the back post where Garnacho finished it off. A couple of Brighton players appealed for offside whereas the United players and commentators seemed oblivious to it. I think Zirkzee knew, he looked a bit sheepish in the celebrations. The Brighton players were right though, the ball hit Zirkzee’s knee just as it was crossing the line, and he was well offside. Cue lot's of bleating about it being unfair and not in the spirit of the game etc. It’s hilarious. Such a freak incident that we probably won’t see again all season in any league. I’ve seen loads of people saying that shouldn’t be offside and the rule is stupid blah blah blah, but this is an open and shut case. I’m not just saying that because it’s United either. You can’t allow that goal to stand regardless of whether it’s accidental or not. It doesn’t matter that the ball was going in anyway either. He’s in an offside position and he knocks the ball over the line. You can’t judge these things on a case by case basis as there’s no subjectivity in this kind of offside. It is or it isn’t, and this is. There’s no controversy here and it’s just tough shit. United’s misery was complete when four minutes into stoppage time Joao Pedro was left all alone at the back post to head the winner. Actually he wasn’t all alone, Brighton had another player waiting behind him. There were no United players anywhere near him though, which was proper schoolboy defending. Eight of them in a ten yard space, like they were doing a fucking rondo! Bet that doesn’t happen against us this week though. Pricks. Interesting that Hag (I’m going to call him that from now on as I found out this week that my Dad thought that was his surname and that Ten was his forename) chose to not bitch about the disallowed goal and instead said that Zirkzee could have been more aware. Not sure what the lad could have done differently to be fair to him. He slid in after the initial cross and then can’t get out of the way when the shot hits him. Still, if Hag wants to throw his players under the bus that’s fine by me. Hopefully he’s doing more of the same on Sunday.

That was weird. The whole experience was weird, from start to finish. Not so much the game or the performance, but Anfield. It kind of felt like a friendly game at times as it was deathly quiet other than the low murmur of thousands of conversations going on. It’s not what I expected for the first game of the season, and I actually felt a little embarrassed by it. The reason I say that is because all summer Arne Slot has been getting asked about how excited he is for his first game at Anfield, and everyone has been begging up the atmosphere and telling him how special it is. And then THAT is what was served up? He said last week how the Ipswich crowd were really loud but there is only 30 thousand of them so he’s looking forward to hearing how loud 60 thousand at Anfield can be. The answer was ‘yeah not very loud at all’. I’ve seen it argued that the flat atmosphere was because of the new style of play and how it isn’t as exciting as Klopp’s football. I don’t buy that though. In a few months maybe we can say that, but this was the first home game under a new manager. Fans didn’t show up thinking “this is going to be dull”. Admittedly, I thought at times it was a bit, but not unusually so. We had loads of spells in games under Jurgen where fuck all was happening and the tempo was too slow. The crowd were quiet right from the off and never really got going at all, even in the second half when we had a spell of incredible football. And at full time it was really weird as nobody seemed to know what to do. I actually understand that though, usually we all take our lead from Klopp as he marches onto the pitch hugging his players before making his way to the KOP. So we had a routine there, and now that’s gone. There were applause at the final whistle and then an eery quiet as everyone stopped clapping and stood there not really knowing what to do. Eventually Slot applauded the Kop and it was reciprocated, and we all went home. I did notice though that the stadium emptied far quicker at full time than it usually does, which was in keeping with the apathy that was there throughout the game. The thing is, it’s not really justified at all because we’ve had a great pre-season and we’ve started with two wins, two clean sheets, some great football and none of the drama we seemed to have most weeks last season where we would need last minute winners or we’d have to come from behind after conceding first time and time again. There’s been none of that, the only drama we’ve had is from Trent being a whiny little fucking bitch. I’ll get to that in due course. I’m hoping that this was just a case of it feeling a bit awkward and fans not really knowing how to react. Klopp was here for so long and now he isn’t. Fans often took their lead from him and now he’s not there on the touchline, applauding players making tackles or producing some good football that led to chance. He was always there, applauding above his head and looking to the crowd to do the same thing. We shouldn’t need that, but maybe we’ve forgotten how to do it ourselves. A couple of times in the first half we produced some lovely football that almost resulted in us getting in on goal, and I looked down to the touchline where usually Klopp would have been there, hands above his head applauding as he walked back towards the bench. Slot wasn’t doing that, which is fine. If that’s not how he naturally behaves he shouldn’t do it. He’s not here to be Jurgen Klopp, he’s here to do things his own way. He’s not going to be whipping the crowd up though, that’s clear. Not yet anyway, maybe later down the road when he feels like he’s earned the right we might see it, but for now the Kop needs to take care of business on their own. It’s a shame because so far I think he’s done a fucking brilliant job. It’s not easy replacing such an iconic figure, and he’s going to run into some problems any time he makes a decision a player doesn’t like (again, Trent, but as I say I’ll get to it) because he’s the step dad who has come in after mum and dad went their separate ways. He has to tread carefully to some extent as he can’t start throwing his weight around immediately, but what I’ve seen so far tells me he’s not going to be a soft touch and anyone who crosses him will be sorry because he won’t pussy foot around it. I hope he calls Trent in and tells him “you only get one of those, I’ll let it slide this time but if you ever do that again you won’t start the next game and I don’t give a fuck who you are or what your contract situation is”. Again though, I’ll get there in a bit, I promise.