United create chances but cannot capitalize

     A cold evening in Manchester saw United pull on level points with City after the latter lost by a goal to nil at Merseyside.
   
  United announced a defence of Smalling, Evans, Ferdinand and Evra. The man between the sticks was Ben Amos making his premier league debut for the club.
  The mid-field was Park, Carrick, Scholes and Valencia unchanged from their visit to Anfield.
 Berbatov and Hernandez started upfront.
 
Stoke:Sorensen; Wilkinson, Huth, Shawcross, Wilson; Pennant, Palacios, Whitehead, Walters; Jones, Crouch. subs: Begovic, Whelan, Fuller, Delap, Etherington, Jerome, Woodgate

  The first half was United domination as Paul Scholes continued where he'd left off against Liverpool but United could just not get a shot on goal. Stoke were irresistible in defence. Somewhere around the Quarter hour mark United where passing around the Stoke penalty area for two minutes without a break through.

 It felt like a tornado passing right over a barn again and again, without any damage, that is until the barn decided to hit itself. Andy Wilkinson brought down Park in the box and a penalty was awarded to United and a yellow for Wilkinson for complaining in the aftermath.

  Chicarito got the goal he was waiting for since his last in Anfield last year in what has been a disappointing season for him, after a cracker of a first. Half time ended as it had in the last leg of this fixture.

 However there was no Crouc header to save the visitors as the Englishman was close to abysmal. He handled the ball after finding space in the first half, and the second half was no better. He hardly had a kick of the ball. When he did he had no support and the battle with Ferdinand was one was never going to win. Ferdinand was cool, calm and collected as ever and he dealt with the threat of the former Tottenham an superbly, although the Crouch was generally so isolated at it wasn't too tough. 



 Tony Pulis normally plays United with a defensive side but now even the two upfront were playing defensive. Amos wasn't tested in the first half. Ryan Shawcross  was sublime. He was never caught out by the Red Devils' attack . He stayed close to Berbatov and Hernandez but the strikers linked so well it was a real challenge at times.
  
 Paul Scholes showed United why they need a substitute for him, first thing this summer by dominating the midfield. His passing was incisive and rarely badly weighted. He could have had a early goal but his chance was just wide.


The second half bought more United domination and another penalty and another goal. Berbatov this time took the spot kick and sealed off what was a quite relaxed night for the Red-Devils. 


 The score-line didn't do justice to the possession the hosts had but reflected the fact hat witout Rooney and Welbeck they lack that finishing touch. Sir Alex may just be regretting the Morrison sale. Just maybe? But that is another story.

Liverpool vs Man utd

Man Utd Vs Liverpool

Anfield

Sunday 28th Jan 2012

     Ever seen a classic game of English football. You surely would have if you watched the North Western derby this afternoon. It had everything the media wanted. Plenty of (non)penalty desicions to talk about, plenty of pace, one crunching unpunished two footed challenge, and a mistake from the man who was getting boo-ed ever since he first touched the ball.

   Liverpool may have not handled the Suarez issue well but you definitely can't say the same about their consecutive meetings with the two Manchester sides this week. They knocked City out of the Carling Cup, and now met a make-shift Red Devil's side and won 2-1. 

  Anfield was loud, so loud it gave me a headache. Manchester United sent out a smake shift side riddled with injuries. De Gea was one avoidable change as Anders Lindergaard was well and fit, and you don't normally send an arguably weak and areially fragile shotstopper in for a game like this. The mid-field had a bit of pace in the form of Valencia but was otherwise built on only expirience with Giggs, Carrick, Park and Scholes getting the nod. Rafael, Smalling and Evans partnered by the man who all the spotlight was on Patrice Evra. Welbeck was the lone striker.Wayne Rooney failed to recover from injury in time for the tie.

  Liverpool's defence had Enrique, Agger, Skrtel and Kelly, while Carragher was employed in a holding medfeild role, most probably to open the width up for Rodriguez, Henderson and Downing

while Andy Carroll waited for those aerial balls.

  The game was started by Manchester United.  The first shot took just 4 more minutes and came from a rather desperate try from 25 yards by rodriguez. United's corner marking was rather akward and the mass of bodies of Evans, Carroll, Agger and Smalling was right in front of the ever complaining David de Gea. The Spaniard could do nothing however for the first goal which came from the head of Agger, unmarked by Smalling and off a corner. Rafael had just left the second post when he had to change direction. Only if he had stayed.

  But United domination followed as plays were ocused onto the right wing by the attacking Rafael and the new big game player for United, Valencia. Scholes lay clever passes all around as he changed the course of play like he'd never been away.

  At the 39th, Jose Enrique lost out near the corner to Rafael, and the brazillian who had been strong all afternoon captiliased with a pass int the d to Park wo calmly slooted it in past watching Welbeck and diving Reina.

 United domination followed and United were the best team on the field for majoriy of the first half and a little of the second.

 Then the substitutions. Maybe the most vital game was the inclusion of Adam by Daglish and the withdrawal of Scholes by Sir Alex. The midfield turned all red. United relied on the back four to play to their strengths and catch Liverpool on the counterattack as the red-devils launched attack after attack at the men in blue and black. And knocking paid of in the 88th minute. And it had to be Evra. The french man went to sleep while marking the freshly introduced Dirk Kuyt. A ball from Reina, cleverly controlled by Carroll(who came alive after Bellamy's introduction for the last 20) fell behind united's line as the unsuspecting Evans played Kuyt onside. And the rest is what the Red is known for as he cleverly slotted it past De Gea's feet into the net.

  Carroll almost got a third but failed.

Why was scholes off.......why did de gea play on......unanswered questions....but the psychological blow is immense, not least because Liverpool were always second best on the pitch as Stevie G later told ITV.

Michael Owen hits back at 'harsh' criticism of Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea

The Spaniard was arguably at fault for both of Liverpool's goals as the Red Devils' exited the FA Cup on Saturday but has received staunched backing from his team-mate

   De Gea was selected ahead of Anders Lindegaard for the crunch clash against the club's rivals at Anfield but appeared to be troubled by crosses throughout.

Michael Owen has hit out at critics of team-mate David de Gea following the Spaniard's performance in the defeat to Liverpool which saw Manchester United bow out of the FA Cup.

His poor judgement then led to Daniel Agger giving the hosts the lead after the Dane nodded a corner, which De Gea had attempted to collect, goalward.

Finally, Dirk Kuyt's late goal had the young shot-stopper beaten easily and clinched a fourth round berth for Kenny Dalglish's men at the expense of the Red Devils.

However, despite De Gea's nervy performance, Owen insisted that the former Atletico Madrid man will come good for United.

"One comment on yesterdays game. Don't agree with all this negativity towards De Gea," the forward wrote on his Twitter.

"Admittedly he has made a couple of mistakes this season but listening to some people you would think he had a nightmare yesterday.

"I'm not having either goal was his fault. The problem is, once you get labelled, mud sticks and now any tiny mistake is magnified. Other keepers make similar mistakes and nothing gets said.

"The ball was on the six yard box for the first goal. He has to go for it. He also needs to watch the flight of the ball. There is then six players in front of him. There is nothing he could do. The free header was the problem, not the keeper.

"He couldn't do much with the second goal either. Is the problem not just a case of us not winning the first ball and not picking up a runner?

"In my opinion two bad goals to give away but to blame everything on the keeper is totally wrong. The lad will be a top keeper, he is only young. Harsh to blame him for everything."

Owen also hailed the club's fans for backing the young shot stopper, adding: "Must say, as you will be quick to remind me, I've watched a lot of home games this season! The support from behind both goals for him has been brilliant.

"The fans know he needs their support, his confidence needs boosting. I'm sure he will repay that support for years to come."

Merseyside Police confirm they are looking into alleged racist gesture made by fan during Liverpool - Manchester United clash

Patrice Evra was jeered by sections of the Anfield crowd from the first whistle, but the game passed largely without incident off the field, although allegations have been made against one fan........................Sickening isn't it?

Merseyside Police have confirmed that they are looking into an alleged racist incident that took place during Liverpool’s 2-1 FA Cup victory over Manchester United on Saturday.

   Prior to kick-off, there had already been a furore surrounding the fixture due to United captain Patrice Evra’s return to Anfield for the first time since Luis Suarez was handed an eight-game suspension for racially abusing the Frenchman in October.

Whilst Evra was jeered by sections of the crowd, the game passed largely without incident, as Dirk Kuyt’s late strike ensured Kenny Dalglish’s side progressed to the fifth round of the Cup.
However, Merseyside Police have since confirmed to Goal.com that an alleged incident of racism from a supporter is “under consideration for investigation”, after an image appeared on twitter.
Match Commander, Chief Superintendent Jon Ward said in a statement: "We can confirm that specialist officers are reviewing match footage, as a result of a picture posted on Twitter.
"This matter is now under investigation by specialist hate crime detectives and we are working with Liverpool Football Club to identify the man in question.
"We take all forms offensive behaviour seriously, and we will always thoroughly investigate such claims. We cannot allow this type of behaviour to affect the enjoyment of genuine fans.
"We will continue with our efforts to deal with the small number of individuals who commit offences at football matches, in particular, with the continued use of football-banning orders."
The allegation comes as the Reds cap off a fine week on the domestic Cup front, having reached the League Cup final on Wednesday at the expense of Manchester City.
The Police were also quick to stress that this was an isolated incident, with the vast majority of both Liverpool and United fans well-behaved throughout the clash.
Ward added: "I would like to thank the majority of fans for their behaviour and co-operation during today's Liverpool Vs Manchester United Match at Anfield.
"We knew this would be a busy operation and most fans can be proud that they acted as ambassadors for their cities and their clubs.
"Despite the large numbers of supporters from both clubs and lively atmosphere only 17 people were ejected from the ground and at this time, two people arrested during the policing operation, all for low level incidents.
"We continue to work with partners and hope fans have a safe journey home.
"As a matter of course, Merseyside Police monitors Twitter, other social networks and match footage during high-profile events such as today's match."
Earlier this month, a Liverpool fan was arrested for making racially motivated comments towards Oldham Athletic’s 20-year-old full back Tom Adeyemi during the two sides’ third-round FA Cup clash, with the youngster making a full statement to the Police.
Saturday’s incident follows on from the FA’s decision to cancel the pre-game handshake between QPR and Chelsea at Loftus Road, with concerns that Anton Ferdinand may snub John Terry over the race row surrounding the pair, and in turn provoke ill-feeling amongst the crowd.

'I don’t know how we lost it' - Sir Alex Ferguson baffled by Manchester United's FA Cup defeat to Liverpool

Scot admits Anfield defeat is a "bad blow" and points the finger of blame at his defence after later Kuyt strike seals victory for the Reds

Source: Goal.com

Getty Images

After being knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool, Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that Manchester United can feel hard done by after "dominating the game" throughout the intense cup tie at Anfield.

     The Red Devils succumbed to defeat after a winning goal from substitute Dirk Kuyt clinched the victory for the Merseyside club in the final moments of the fiercely contested fourth round tie.

Although his Manchester United side walked away having been knocked out of yet another cup competition Sir Alex felt that United's performance merited more, and that they were unlucky not to win the game.
“I don’t know how we lost it, it was a really good performance by us,” Ferguson told ITV.
“But I think when you look at it in the context of the FA Cup things like that can happen. One break away one bad break against you and you can lose a game.
“It’s a sudden death situation, and we’ve experienced it many times over the years, but it was a bad blow because we didn’t deserve that.
“I am pleased with my players; they performed very well, dominated the game, played really good football and didn’t deserve to be beaten at all.
“In fact we should have won the game, we were the better team, but that’s FA Cup football I am afraid, and it’s not the first time it’s happened.”
Goalkeeper David De Gea came under criticism again after his inability to dominate his area was exploited for Liverpool’s first goal, courtesy of Daniel Agger’s header from a corner.
Although De Gea’s tentative approach may have cost them the game Ferguson laid the blame with the defence as a whole, claiming the goals were both avoidable, adding: “Yes of course they were [avoidable], we didn’t do well, there was too many defenders in and around the goalkeeper in the first one and the second was just one of these lucky breaks you get.”

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has admitted that his side probably did not deserve to win their FA Cup fourth round tie against Manchester United.

The Post match analysis will be out the first thing midnight

Dirk Kuyt's late winner secured the Reds' progression after Park Ji-sung had cancelled out Daniel Agger's opener.

"[We didn't deserve to win] on possession, and probably not on general play," Gerrard told ITV.

"You've got to give Manchester United credit, they controlled large periods of the game today. But the most important thing was the result, and we got their in the end.

"We had a really tough match in the week so you've got to give our team a lot of credit for the effort and commitment we put in today."

Gerrard also hailed the performance of striker Andy Carroll, who, having been on the receiving end of plenty of criticism since moving to Anfield, supplied the crucial flick-on in the build-up to Kuyt's winning goal.

"He's a good player and he's very important to Liverpool," he said. "If it wasn't for Andy today, maybe we wouldn't be in the draw tomorrow.

"We played to Andy Carroll's strengths. He can cause any team a lot of problems. Dirk [Kuyt] got the winner today, and Daniel Agger got the first, but Andy Carroll made a massive contribution."

The 31-year-old also praised the role of the Liverpool fans in driving the team to victory following their tiring League Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester City on Wednesday evening.

"I thought the Liverpool fans were superb today, like they were in midweek," Gerrard said.

"They never let us down. It was a big game, and they played a part today, they pushed us through. I think they realised that we were very tired from midweek, but they kept pushing us."

Substitute Kuyt added that the result, as well as Liverpool's progression to the League Cup final, showed they could compete with the country's top sides.

"It was a great header from Andy, and I just ran [onto it]," he said. "The only thing to do was just to score.

"We proved that we can compete with the best. Maybe they were the better team, and they were desperate to win, but at the end of the day it's about scoring goals. Whoever scores the most goals wins the game, and it was up to us."

There have been six red cards in last nine meetings between Man Utd & Liverpool in all competitions and four in the last six games at Anfield.

United have lost only three times in the last 21 away games in all competitions. Compared to last season that is an improvement.

North Western Derby

My I-Pod calandar tells me that united's next match is a trip to Anfield to meet their long term rivals, Liverpool.
 There was a time in which a fixture like this would have been labelled a title decider, or in the case of a cup tie, the clash of heavy-weights. It still is a clash of heavy-weights but the Merseyside club has shed a lot of it's weight in recent years. They haven't won a league title for 2 decades now and their nearest success is a F.A Cup victory in 2006 with goals from Riise and Crouch. The times at Old Trafford could not have been a better contrast. Under the aegis of their current manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United have won 12 league titles, a total of 19 in their history. The past two years has seen the gulf in class grow as United have won a League Cup, Two community sheilds and the League while Liverpool had nothing

This tie is now just a clash of egos....a traditional rivalry, nothing else.

The tie has always been a nightmare for the Merseyside Police force with fan agitation a common occurrence. The last tie however was pretty subdued but ego-s have now been hurt following a 8 match ban for Liverpool's (arguably) best player Luis Suarez. The ban was handed out by the F.A for racially abusing Manchester United's French left-back Patrice Evra. The Kop's reaction was one too forget. King Kenny and his boys wore Luiis Suarez - Che Guerra type T shirts before their match against Wigan, drawing cricism from all quarters.

The Anfield outfit's last game draw with United's neighbors City in a League Cup Semi-Final thriller which ended a draw . City just about kept themselves in the game despite taking an early lead through Nigel De Jong long range effort. All match Liverpool had the ball but City had the goals but a late Craig Bellamy strike which saw Liverpool go through 3-2 on aggregate.

 United's clash with Arsenal......well enough has been said in the past week about tactical in-stability and Wenger's weird change of policy.......and it's true....That's all there is to that story. But United can take positives from this match.
+ Valencia has proved he's a big game player.......(park's replacement???)
+ A midfield combination of Giggs and Carrick may have been the source of Persie's goal 'cause they        can't tackle for nuts. But boy, can they pass.

Well this derby is being built up like any other. What happens on the pitch tomorrow, in spite of being the cup, can have immense phycological effect on the title race......or can't it????

Hello Cool World!

Hey there......this blog sincerely apologizes for the termination of a previous blog by the same blogger.
The blog's termination was due to very few page views that can be directly linked to the this blogger's lack of time to post. This blogger is very sorry for the inconveniences faced by individual's waiting for this blogger's shitty analysis works of genius, and assures readers that this shall never happen again.

Also this blog is fully open to all criticism and praise on it's posts and the subject of the blog......the blog's comments if personally offesive are regretted and the blog can be informed @ it's facebook page or in a comment.
And now to start where we left off......
(PS THIS BLOG IS NOW AS YOU CAN SEE BY THE TITLE A UNITED BLOG BUT STILL WILL CONTINUE UNBIASED ANALYSIS)