GROW UP FERGIE

First up what a feeling to beat ManU and their beach ball throwing,serial whining fans. The atmosphere evident was unbeliveable and the players lived up to it. But Fergie's interview left a lot to be desired. So a analysis of the performance of the ref

1.The yellow card to Evra - tripping a striker a metre from the goal line is a yellow card regardless of whether it is the first foul of the player or not.
2.Vidic - this guy does two cynical fouls on Torres in the first half, shoulder charges reina and goes unbooked.Then he fouls Torres and proceeds to cut the legs from under him. Is this not a yellow card offense? The rugby style foul on Kuyt was a straight red if not a yellow.
3.The Carrick penalty decision - some people claim getting the ball is not enough for not awarding the penalty.Laughable.It looked 50/50 at best and if this was a penalty then so was the shirt pull by Berbatov.
NOTE:Even the players did not claim any decision here. And with serial whiners in their team this shows the validity of the penalty claim.
4.The Lucas barge into giggs - this was a foul and was a freekick not a penalty.
5.Lucas deserved an yellow card for his fouls.
6.The second yellow to Mash was harsh as this was not a deliberate nor a dangerous tackle.
7.The yellow awarded to Carra for the Owen tackle was correct. He was not the last defender and since he did not give vidic a straight red for a similar offense twice, no reason to complain.
8.Five minutes of added time in a half with little to no stoppage and one goal is ridiculous.
9.Fergie kept bleating at the referee the whole match and again criticizes the ref in the interview, let us see what view the FA takes of this.
10.There were some more dodgy calls for both sides.

Having said all this i cannot understand why the ManU fans are complaining when
1.They did not utter a word when fletcher escaped after commiting a dozen fouls aganist arsenal. Lucas had six called against him.
2.They did not utter a word asking why fletcher was not booked nor a penalty given he brought arshavin down.
3.Question the ref every time you lose or draw,when several "favors" can be pointed to ManYoo in several matches.

And yes we are obsessed with ManYoo, the same way Madrid are obsessed with Barca,Celtic with Ranger,Newcastle with Sunderland and Arsenal with Spurs.
"Losing to Liverpool is the most pain you can have when you play for United. There was a big silence in the dressing room and we will need a few days to recover from this big disappointment for us, for the staff, for the fans." - Patrice Evra. Amen to That.

Aquilani

I feel sorry for the guy. The amount of hype/expectation/debate surrounding his debut is incredible. And he is going to be introduced into a team short in confidence and form. Great!
Meanwhile i hope Stevie does not need a surgery for his groin problems. God help us if he is not going to play for the next few matches which include fulham(a), citeh (h), the mersey side derby,Lyon(a),Arsenal(h) and Blackburn(a). Really tough set of fixtures and we can do without our best player injured.

Problems with Liverpool

So we have lost 3 out of 8 games in EPL and add one more Champions League defeat to it and we have lost to just about every half decent team we have played. A brief look at the reasons i think is behind this:

1.Defense unable to pass the ball - our defense never had the ability to pass the ball, we always needed someone from midfield to drop back and collect it. Till last season we had Xabi to do it. But Lucas does not fit the bill and Mash has been unfit and is only now coming back to top gear. What this does is invite needless pressure, the defense hold on to the ball far too long letting the opposition to press in up the pitch. This results most often in a hoof up the pitch and loss of possession. This has been the story in every single match we lost so far.

2.Defense in bad shape - I regret losing Sami. Carragher switched from RCB to LCB has looked lost in most of the matches.
Also the much talked about zonal defending is partly responsible. Most of the opposition teams simply seem to crowd out one of the posts and the players drilled to defend their zones are static when the ball is played in and hence are not much use defending.

3.Weak Midfield - I dont know where he got the idea that Kuyt is a winger or Lucas is world class midfielder. Lucas is an average player right now and has no real pace nor vision. Kuyt [a player i personally adore for his work rate and commitment] is not a winger in any sense. He can do a job now and then but he is not going to be effective in that position against the better teams. Also buying a player who you know is injured that too when your team has had a really poor summer is downright criminal.

4.The team formation - some of our formations are puzzling to say the least.Benayoun who should start in every match in my view, starts mostly on the left to accomadate Kuyt on the other wing. We mostly play with Stevie and Torres upfront and in all the matches we lost, both of them have been completely isolated and hence ineffective.

Better idea would be to play Stevie and Mash in the middle and Benayoun and Riera in the wings. Torres and Kuyt/Babel upfront. This formation would offer better space for Torres to exploit as well. And with Stevie in the middle, we will atleast create something. Watch the last twenty minutes or so in every match we lost, you will notice that Stevie drops in and we begin to look more solid from then on.

5. The owners - Gillet spoke up this week criticizing Benitez, just goes to highlight the situation at Anfield now. Stupid owners, silly manager.

Is the season over for us? I do accept that Liverpool have not looked good enough, but neither have the opposition. ManU, Chelski and Arsenal have stuttered and the chasing pack of Spurs and Villa dont look good enough either. Considering that Chelsea will lose out on a few players during the Cup of Nations and that City have only the league to play for , if they sort out their defense, City could become the team to beat this season and are the favorites for the title IMHO. ManU are not the force they were in the last two seasons and are sustained only by a sublime run of matches from Giggs. So on the whole - a bit optimistic and needless to say i will be happy that any team other than that old dog Fergie's win the title.