My friend Andrew described it as 'probably the worst Liverpool-Utd game I've seen in my lifetime.' I am around longer to have seen worse. Yet, given the current balance of forces, if there is a more underwhelming outing it is buried in the archives. Liverpool have lost in the past to decent United sides in games they were not really expected to win. Today's was considered a comfortable three points, there for the taking. Liverpool merely had to turn up - yet they fluffed it.
Jamie Carragher suggested in a recent piece that “Liverpool are top of the league and I am not really sure how.” They are not any longer given today's performance. When a second half sub who has never netted a goal for the club, Joe Gomes, becomes the player who comes closest to scoring there is something seriously wrong. I no longer remember when Mo Salah last went past his opponent.
While walking my dog along the Boyne this morning and chatting with my friend Alfie Gallagher, I predicted a Liverpool victory despite some poor performances of late. I did caution that there would be no 7-0 repeat of last season's drubbing despite Liverpool being a much improved side. While United arrived as the underdogs, professional pride was at stake and they were never gonna roll over. Erik ten Haag had inserted some steel rods in the backbone of his team so despite being penned in for all of the first half and most of the second the side was never going to wilt in the face of a full frontal Liverpool assault which had all the aggression of a dead sheep, to cite a memorable 1978 putdown of Geoffrey Howe from Denis Healy. The United defence was equal to the Liverpool forward line. The end result despite being a 0-0 draw was a victory to Manchester United.
Jamie Carragher suggested in a recent piece that “Liverpool are top of the league and I am not really sure how.” They are not any longer given today's performance. When a second half sub who has never netted a goal for the club, Joe Gomes, becomes the player who comes closest to scoring there is something seriously wrong. I no longer remember when Mo Salah last went past his opponent.
Carragher added:
None of this is easy to disagree with. McAllister has underperformed, Soboslai has gone off the boil despite a promising start since his transfer from RB Leipzig, being frequently substituted. Luiz Diaz has never regained his pre-injury level. The four long range goals against Fulham were something of an aberration. The one pre-season transfer that seems to be working out is that of Ryan Gravenberch. The rot has stopped but the management looks as if it is continuing to carve something from rotten wood.
Jamie Carragher stresses the need for a defensive midfielder and more consistency from midfield but it is the forward line that failed today.
I went to the pub with my son for the game, where four pints each inoculated us to some extent from the disappointment of such a poor performance, so poor in fact that neither of us was in a mood for more after the final whistle, opting to trudge the short few minutes walk home from our local.
The league table says one thing but my eyes tell me something else. The balance of the team is still not quite right, and it is hard to imagine it will be without a ready-made defensive midfielder.
Jamie Carragher stresses the need for a defensive midfielder and more consistency from midfield but it is the forward line that failed today.
I went to the pub with my son for the game, where four pints each inoculated us to some extent from the disappointment of such a poor performance, so poor in fact that neither of us was in a mood for more after the final whistle, opting to trudge the short few minutes walk home from our local.
If the EPL title is to come to Anfield this year it will only do so after Joe Biden declares war on Israel for its genocide in Gaza. What chance that?
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Big winners were Man City, thanks to the Rags - our affectionate name for that mis-named team that plays in the Borough of Trafford, near Manchester. The Rags have played there since 1910, but Trafford is not in the City of Manchester. They do play in Greater Manchester, but so so do Bolton, Wigan and Stockport.
ReplyDeleteCity played a bit like the Rags on Saturday by giving up a two-nil lead but were reprieved by the Rags on Sunday against Liverpool.
But, a bit like The Masters only beginning on the back nine on Sunday, the Premiers League only begins in January. City are having theirs spell of poor form now, but will come roaring back in the New Year.
City! City! City till I die!
Bitter as usual.We were born in Newton Heath which was in the City of Machester.We moved to Clayton which was also in the City boundary in 1892.We became Manchester United in 1902.We didn't go 2.5 miles away unt1910.There are more Reds in Manchester and Outside of it than Blues and that's official as is the fact that we have more actual Mancunian Season Ticket Holders than than the Bitters at the Emptipad.Youre the Chelsea of the North.You won the Lottery Ticket.You would be playing Accrington now I'd you didn't get lucky.We made History you Bought it.
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