szólj hozzá: Man Utd v Liverpool 2:1 GOALS
The scoreline does not reflect how good Man Utd were or the dire Liverpool performance especially in the second half. That was on the pitch as the rest of the world tuned into the Luis Suarez vs Patrice Evra telenovela.
The Manchester side came to play football while the Reds came to do, well, whatever Luis Suarez wanted to do. And right away the Uruguayan proceeded to make a miserable ass of himself, refusing to shake Patrice Evra’s hand, prompting Rio Ferdinand next in line to retaliate by withdrawing his hand This was set up from the get go. Ferdinand as Evra’s wingman. This really did not go down well at the Stretford End as Suarez was followed by boos and chants
Man Utd looked crisp from the get go except for their finish. Danny Welbeck suffered a rare loss of confidence when he passed up a clear scoring opportunity to centre the ball into a thicket of Liverpool defenders and then Ryan Giggs motoring down the left presented the Ginger Assassin with a golden look at goal but his header was directed tamely to Pepe Reina. Meanwhile Antonio Valencia down the right made Luis Enrique look and play like a 300 lb sumo wrestler. For Liverpool Glen Johnson had a nice go at goal but that was about it. Suarez looked like he was out on an island by himself with no one to abuse except the ball which he did by booting it out at half time. Totally crass. He’s the pied piper leading Liverpool down the path to “You’ll Never Sulk Alone.”
The half time began after reported handbags in the tunnel between Evra, Suarez, and Martin Skrtel which led to the French, the Uruguayan, and the Slovakian emissaries to exert damage control in the now historic Montevideo peace treaty.
Utd came out and in about five minutes smoked Liverpool with Wayne Rooney turning in a corner smartly off his boot as it came to him courtesy Jordan Henderson. Two minutes later, Valencia charging down with Enrique backpedaling slipped in a pass to Rooney and the striker was on point. Liverpool looked like Kristen Stewart with the life forces sucked out of them. Their shambolic passing continued. Rooney could have had a third when his toe poke went wide left after another bout of sublime service involving Valencia and Scholes.
Kenny Dalglish took of the ineffective Stuart Downing, now officially in a Torres like quagmire and Jay Spearing whose mistake led to the second goal. Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy would have to come up with an extra effort to get Liverpool into the game. Just when Utd looked like this would be a stroll in the park a free kick into the box struck an unsighted Ferdinand and the ball sprang free to Suarez who poked it into goal. The next 10 + minutes were a cagey affair with both sides having a hard time holding onto the ball. David De Gea managed to tip over Johnson’s fiercely struck shot for a magnificent save. The match ended with Evra going a bit mad with his celebrations rubbing it in front of Suarez as a whole bunch of match officials and stewards tried to head off another potential conflagration.
All the focus will be on the handshake that never happened but Liverpool have a far more pressing problem. They have invested £150m in attack minded players but only one seems to delivering and he has other issues.