Scouser Revival

Rio is lagging again in his concentration

I was right before. Man Utd screws it up the best when it's the easiest. In those circumstances, they had to lose in some idiotic fashion. Both teams had their star strikers hit with injury problems and both forced them to place anyway even though they may not have regained full fitness. It was a gamble that both sides are willing to take. Benitez is thinking that a half-fit Torres is better than no Torres while Fergie thinks that Rooney should start since Owen would probably not last the full 90 minutes of Anfield flak.

The game was pretty much balanced and both sides had their fair shares of shots although the Scouser's chances were overall much better in breaking the deadlock. The beachballs jokes were never ending as several of them rained down during corners. United played some good passing all around but the finishing at the final third was just awful. For some reason or so, the Liverpudian defence turned uber when they play against Man Utd. I can pretty much say that Man Utd may be able to score if one of the attempted long range shorts by Rooney or Scholes were allowed to take its full course. However, the Liverpudian defence was there to cover every inch of the field and their closing down of such shots is kinda impressive. All the shots that did get past through were predictable and Pepe Reina dealt with them with ease. At this rate, it just takes a defensive lapse from Rio and Co for the Scousers to kill steal a win. Anyways, Van der Sar had to commended though in covering for the inapt United defence and dealing with several Aurelio's shots impressively.

Torres had several chances in breaking free of the United defence but his half fitness prevented him from finishing off his balls lethally. He finally settled the score for the Kop after latching on from Benayoun's killer pass in the 65th minute. It's quite embarrassing that a fully fit Ferdinand actually struggled and got left behind biting the dust in the pace of chasing a half-fit Torres. That shouldn't have been a goal to let in by a good defender's standard in the first place. Once again, Rio's absent mindedness at the wrong time proved costly. Fergie released Owen only in the 74th minute amidst the chorus of boos from the Kop. For Owen, it's clearly a different Liverpool side he once knew, with only Carragher as the only person on the pitch he played with other than Gerrard in the spectator stands. Well, he wasn't the saviour of the match as United fans would have expected but he did play some part in assisting a very close equaliser. The closest ever moment that United had in salvaging the match was when Valencia managed to smash in the ball diagonally past Pepe Reina in the penalty box crowd but unfortunately, it rattled against the crossbar and away went went United's hope. It's moments like this that you know that it's not gonna be Man Utd's day. The match finished off in a most shameful manner when towards the last few seconds, United threw everything that they have at Liverpool and a counter-attacking turnaround tide saw David Ngog going 1 v 1 against van der Sar, effectively sealing it with a goal to put down to rest any attempts by United to equalise.

There are at least 2 referee decisions that left Fergie aggrieved and he may have reasons to do so. One was a Carragher slide smash on Carrick in the penalty box but it appears as if the referee played an advantage when it should have been a penalty. The other was a last-man tackle made by Carragher on his former comrade brother-in-arms Owen. It could have been a red-card and the tide of the games might have been very different indeed. Instead, it was Vidic who got sent off for a soft second yellow but Mascherano's on the receiving end too of a red towards the end of the match..lol. Bad referee decision or not, Man Utd have performed below-par in the match and even Fergie admits that. Maybe we just need more beachballs to motivate Man Utd to do better too..lol.

Well, looks like defiant Benitez was right after all: It's just a win away from turning their fortunes and what better way to do it than against the Red Mancunians. Benitez may just have his job saved by his fellow Spaniard and he would do well to remember Torres when he gets his paycheck from Gillett or Hicks..lol. Anways, the Scousers still have lots to catch up even with this victory. With Chelski back at the top, United will have to hope that the Blues start to lose some points again.