Topic: Round Table LFC 1-0 Man Utd. chortle.

[BabuYagu]

A lot has been said about Henderson, and he was superb, I think this is going to be a big year for him. I love the balance created between him and Coutinho, such different players but compliment each other well.

Reminds me of Houghton/Barnes when I was just getting into football as a kid.

On the subject of fitness of the Manchester United players... I remember PoP saying about it in the Moyes thread. From memory and paraphrasing a lot but  he said that he loves his fitness training and United would end up suffering from over training and picking up a lot of injuries or fatigue later in the season as a result. You also have to remember that they are only playing once per week and that is the world Moyes knows. They also were not involved in the Carling Cup midweek.

He isn't big on rotation and with too much fitness training throughout the season on top of a European campaign he should run this squad into the ground by Christmas.

[mercury]

Such games would be tactical and gritty but seldom beautiful and never good for the heart 

As the opening posts said, these 1-0 wins are great team builder both in terms of football and mentality and let's remember we are not set up as an 1-0s team.  It's very satisfactory to see us showing tactical flexibility and that our young manager is learning fast and hopefully our young team would grow with him.  However, if the plan for such games is to let the opposition have possession after the lead, we definitely can improve on the use of ball when we do have possession.  Our transitions could have been quicker and more efficient and we could lose the ball a little less cheaply.

9 for 9 and top of the table -- this feels good.  We had a solid transfer window as well, but other top teams have also improved -- perhaps bar the Mancs with Moyes now confirmed as their biggest signing     It will be a fight for a top 4 spot and we are going to enjoy it.

[Henry Kissinger]

Under a near cloudless sky, the two most successful teams in England walked into a cauldron of tribal passion unrivalled throughout the land. A tale of two cities indeed. For one side, the sun had set on a majestic run of glory-filled years, their supporters looking for a single crumb of comfort, a slender sign that times were a-changing, the reddening glow of a new horizon. Numerous false dawns had left them frail, skeptical, mistrustful, and pessimistic.

A new leader had been installed at the cost of a noble man, loved by all who followed this once-illustrious team. Now watched with suspicious eyes, he was handed the enormous responsibility of returning a once great club back to the top. He felt young blood was needed. Patience would be required, he said. So they waited.

For the other, the sun was setting on two decades of prosperity, a new man at the helm. Unversed in the language of success. Unaccustomed to winning great battles. An aversion to all things silver. His followers were reticent in their support, and as they filed into the arena their jittery and fitful reaction was unsuccessfully masked with arrogance.

When the youngsters struck first, ably led by their only surviving elder statesman, the delight was joyous, fervent even. The crowd grew more hopeful, basking in the beauty of realization, and yet tempered with hesitation. They watched and waited. Watched as their heroes kept the visitors at arms length. Waited for the counterblow that never came. The end was met with a mighty roar, a heady mixture of elation, satisfaction and relief.

Patience, he said. 

[subroc]

Interesting to see how the Mancs didn't get the benefit of decisions yesterday like they did when the other feller was manager,  The penalty that wasn't given yesterday was exactly the same as the one last year that was given (dive between defenders, throw out one leg to tangle with defender, throw arms in the air) and they seemed to have a confused look throughout when they were penalized for things they used to be allowed to do.  They're going to have to adapt to playing without the bulbous nosed one's influence on games, could be interesting.

Agreed - and I wonder if the irritation and pique shown by their players during that match was also due to their bewilderment at actually not being given the benefit of the doubt anymore by the match officials...

[Alonso_The_Assassin]

We've played far better than we did on Sunday and lost, however in saying that, I don't think we've defended better under Brendan Rodgers. In fact, I’m quite certain we haven’t. It was reminiscent of the Rafa days in Europe when and Sami and Carra erected a wall in front of the waves that splashed before them. I don't know about you guys, but underneath the nerves of every wave that came before our defence on Sunday, I don't think there was actually fear that we'd concede. I think the demons of the last five years were lingering, but Agger and Skrtel dispelled those demons with aplomb.

Is it the confidence? Is it the fact that our defence looks so much better with Simon Mignolet in goal or is the fact that we are becoming better as a team? It’s probably a combination of all these factors.

Skrtel was immense. We’ve all been used to big Mart coming in after a lay off and looking a little rusty, but he was straight in there and to be honest, the lad turned in a heroic performance alongside his best pal, Agger.

Daniel Sturridge; the more he scores, the more he looks to be toying with opposition defenders, the more he celebrates, the more he smiles, Chelsea must kick themselves just that little harder. The lad has been a revelation and if we can keep him fit, the sky’s the limit. It really is.

Henderon, Lucas, Gerrard; fight, guile and a general willingness to work for one another. Henderson’s confidence continues to astound while Lucas’ form is back to where it was in 2011. Gerrard is revelling in the ‘mentor’ role. Wait until he starts scoring goals! All of this is a credit not only to the playing group, but to Brendan Rodgers and his staff. The socialism Bill Shankly built with this club appears to be resonating through to this group of players; something we’ve missed for years.

Lastly, I want to touch on pre-season. Some people say that results don’t matter in pre-season. I’ve always disagreed with this notion and what was built in pre-season is now perpetuating; we’ve reaped what we’ve sown, thus far. On the flip side, look at United. Patchy pre-season; they seem to be struggling now, too, whether it be by performance or selection (Young and Giggs’ inclusions were ridiculous and somewhat played into our hands). It’s all relative in my opinion.

[No666]

We beat united with no 100 per cent fit centre backs and a striker who couldn't shoot thanks to injury. We were forced to play a centre back who, apparently, does not fit Rodgers's natural set-up and style. We did it courtesy of effort and team spirit. (Sturridge's goal celebration was really telling. Skrtel's performance and commitment were also indicative of good man-management.)
United's team spirit, in contrast, is fraying around the edges. They may recover yet, but Van Persie's ill-temper was also telling. Moyes's solution was to include Giggs in the starting eleven - the public commitment of the elder statesman acting as an endorsement of the manager's reputation. But don't tell me there aren't a few question marks, even if vague and unspoken, in the heads of some, maybe all, of those players.
What's not to like? 

[007.lankyguy]

That was very satisfying...

There's so much to take from that. We didn't play at our best but at the same time I thought we looked comfortable.

We started well, I was again impressed by the team work and our ability to close down to regain when we lost possession. We were energetic, winning second balls and Coutinho was causing problems with his dribbling and play between the lines. I thought playing Aspas in the middle was a mistake because United left space between the lines and when he was on the ball we were losing fluidity in possession. At the same time, his work rate and pressuring is very good so that helped us control them.

The thing I was most worried about in the first half, apart from the fact our backline was dropping too deep sometimes and the tempo meant we sometimes didn't have as much control as you would ordinarily like, was that we were often overplaying the middle and Henderson and particularly Coutinho were narrow, which left space on transition on the outside for them to use, which they did, although it didn't lead to anything meaningful. I thought Jones going off and being replaced by Valencia at right back would have helped them as Lucas was having to cover a lot on that side for Coutinho but ultimately their starting line up was very reliant on Van Persie - Young had virtually no impact neither did Giggs, Carrick and Cleverley didn't dominate midfield or control space and without Rooney and with no Kagawa on the bench, they had no option between the lines to play penetrating passes or to pick up second balls when they looked for Van Persie.

The best thing about the game for me was the fact that even in the last 25 minutes, I wasn't remotely nervous. Moyes didn't know how to change the game. We had lowered our block and were retaining our shape and they were making it easy for us to keep it. As I said, without Rooney and without Kagawa, they had nothing between the lines. When they had the ball at the back, it was all very slow because they had no passing option centrally behind our midfield. It meant that they either enticed us to press them and ended up losing the ball in their half or they ended up playing it long and wide. Because they had nobody between the lines, it became much easier for us to control because we didn't have to worry about penetrating passes through the middle. They had a bit more freshness and intensity when they brought on Hernandez and Nani but it was their lack of speed in possession and anybody between the lines to break our shape that meant it was relatively easy for us to control. Alright, we didn't have much in attack; Coutinho when he moved to the middle played too much like a forward/support striker rather than a number ten and we didn't create much in the second half but I was so confident we'd get the win, I wasn't even remotely nervous.

[lamonti]

Watched it from the Kop and haven't seen it on telly yet so it might be slanted in one particular way.

Aspas' job (and latterly Coutinho's and Alberto's) was primarily to hamper Carrick and it worked really effectively, there were so few times when he was able to open up his full range of pass. There was one particular occasion in the second half where he found himself not surrounded and was able to hit a lovely right-to-left switch to set up an attack. It was a huge part of our game plan and criticism of Aspas (and the others) has to be tempered by noting how good a job they did on Carrick.

On the other hand, Aspas' touch at times was just not good enough to be playing in the hole. He was getting drilled passes that he would take a heavy touch on rather than trapping which meant we had to recycle and start again.

Coutinho moved onto him later in the game but was very tired and Alberto replaced him eventually. The crowd seemed frustrated that we were pressing high and there was a little tentativeness toward the end when even Utd. looked shaky passing it around (De Gea lumping a pass in touch the crowd) but Alberto still didn't know whether to press like everyone wanted or to stick on Carrick which was the job his manager gave him.

Utd. didn't really seem that threatening. If you felt there was a goal coming at the end it was more out of habit of thinking that than anything, because they really struggled to create and their crossing was so uncharacteristically bad.

I think we lost confidence in the moving the ball about in the second half and got a bit conservative, but that's acceptable in a game vs Man Utd, given that they are champions. Plus Sturridge decided to hold up the ball on counters and bring us up the pitch rather than go for goal himself, all the more understandable given his thigh injury that we discovered in the aftermath.

All in all... fucking brilliant win. Great to be at it and hear the Kop in full voice. Was seriously raucous in the second half. Stevie G's niggle with van Persie was a treat. While I'd say MOTM was Lucas, Henderson or Skrtel, Gerrard is just so imperious to watch in person. What a footballer.

[stevied]

You know that Manc that you grew up with, he is bigger than you and a right prick, well i was stood next to him in our local, 80% reds against a few mad Mancs who can all handle themselves, when Phil got nailed by Cleverley it all kicked off in the pub, the big Manc was crying that we should have kicked the ball out, oh do fuck off twat, he then stood there for the rest of the game snarling and being all hard, claiming penalties, telling anyone that wanted to listen how they would nick one at the end, well Carl Pringle have that 1-0 right up ya arse.

I wasnt nervous at any point i thought we defended brilliantly, thought Hendo and Lucas were magnificent, yeah maybe we were a bit defensive but whats the point in getting caught at the back with a sucker punch, a perfect start to the season some solid purchases and we have Luis back in a short while.
Onwards and upwards we go

[hollger]

Obviously delighted to win this game. Beating that lot is always so good, the fact it made us 3 wins from 3 and no goals against was even sweeter.

I can't deny that second half was a very nervy affair for me. I wish I shared that belief some of you have posted about - that they never looked like doing it, that certain player selections meant this or that, etc. We sat back very deep and challenged them to break us down and though I don't really have a problem with that per se, I just wasn't convinced we could hold out as although our back line has looked a lot better this season, I thought that against the usual 'famous final 20' from Utd we'd eventually leak a soft equaliser from a scramble in the box or something.

However, that 'famous final 20' never materialised. Indeed, their attacks for the entire match were pretty lame and caused us very little worry. I'm not sure whether it is actually down to Ferguson leaving, Moyes' tactics or just a general combination of everything coupled with them just really not having that great a team, but it wasn't the Utd I've been used to seeing. If you take out the Moyes factor, you'd still think that a title-winning team would still have enough about it to play their usual game and actually throw everything at us - perhaps the loss of Rooney was really that much of a big deal. You just can't imagine players like Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Van Persie etc would sit back and roll over if they didn't think the tactics they'd been set weren't working - especially losing in such a huge game. Maybe it was an off day, but they just didn't look like a team that were going for the win (or even desperately trying to scrape a draw) - a very stark change from the teams Ferguson's brought to Anfield over the years.

I'm probably doing Brendan a disservice here because had Utd actually come out all guns blazing then you'd like to think he had relevant plans in place to adjust our tactics and cope. I think I'm just used to seeing us (and to be fair, the rest of the league too) concede late goals to their constant pressure.

For us though, it was massively refreshing to get the win. We almost eased to it (although as I said I do wonder had Utd actually stepped up their game sufficiently in the second half whether we'd have managed to hold on), though I was fairly disappointed to see how often we were losing the ball in the second period. The first half I thought we were fairly comfortable, though I wish we'd have managed to click just that once more and one of our moves had resulted in a second goal whilst we were in control.

Skrtel was great - a slight worry initially for me because Brendan clearly doesn't want him as a starter in his ideal team and also he hasn't played much competitive football lately, but let's not forget this was a player of the season a couple of years ago. Henderson was fantastic again, he's really growing into an integral part of our team. He's improved his ability to receive the ball and take the play on whereas last season I felt he was a little guilty of going sideways/back too often. Maybe it's coaching, maybe it's Dr Peters, maybe it's just confidence - whatever it is you can see he's grown as a player (and is still growing). His lung capacity is awesome, the lad never looks tired and he was flying up and down the pitch, closing people down and making sure he was in space and available all the time.

Gerrard and Lucas were brilliant. Johnson gave his best performance in recent memory (and then got injured ). Sturridge, despite not being 100% was yet again all over the place - hopefully he isn't involved in the internationals and can get some recovery time in before the next game. Wisdom looked good when he came on - thought his confidence might have taken a knock from his role as centre back against Notts County but he was calm and effective. So many positives!

Overall, I think we'll be given much sterner tests this season. However with the confidence we breed from these hard-fought victories, Suarez to return and the strength we've just added in Sakho and Moses I think we'll be in a better position when those tests come around. It's only 3 games (and I'm ignoring the 'top of the league' nonsense purely because of that) but I'm beginning to get a good feeling about this season. I'm not going crazy singing about a title challenge from the rooftops but I'm optimistic we can give that top 4 a real, credible go at the least. Then, our most important decision of the next window may well be an extension for Mr Rodgers

[Harris96]

Bit of a nervy one to say the least, but i thought it showed how far we've progressed since the beginning of last season.

Last season I don't think many of us would have been surprised if we had drawn that, or even lost that towards the end. It reminded me of the 2-2 arsenal match where we had played pretty well, and then arsenal started to dominate and then in the space of a few minutes they were back at 2-2. And yes the argument could be made that United honestly didn't have a clue what to do when attacking and were missing their creative spark with rooney injured, but we certainly didn't help that.

When Rodgers talks about the mental strength of players, i used to think, yeah it's important but not vital, but i've IMO been proven wrong. Sundays win, along with the win at stoke especially has shown how vital it'll be this season, and it could possibly be one of the main reasons we had so many draws last season rather than wins, whether it was us being unable to hold onto the lead, or us just losing concentration or belief because we failed to break down a bottom half team after a ling period of pressure. Hopefully, and there's signs that there is, a much stronger mentality within the team, you can see that in the training photos, everyone looks happy. (Saying that they probably didn't upload the picture of suarez crying in the corner after not being allowed to leave  )

Slightly moving away from that side, I thoroughly enjoyed Gerrard's captain performance, both playing and leading. As pointed out the 'wanker, fuck off' to van persie was great, sticking up for his team and giving van persie a taste of his own medicine;

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZWRZmrhb5ME" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/ZWRZmrhb5ME</a>

But Gerrard's performance, away from a leadership perspective was class also, especially considering he had played 120 mins just a few days ago, some of the tackles he put in were class, and his positional awareness is just great.

My motm was either Johnson or skrtel, i went to my mate, they pulled that out the bag didn't they. Johnson has put in so many of those performances over the last couple of years for us, and a whole group of them for england at the Euros, but they're often forgotten after 1 defensive lapse in a game, when some decide to try to highlight his defensive frailties. Yes he was beaten by evra to the ball in the air on occassion, but that was mainly due to young coming inside quite a lot, meaning johnson followed suit, and with henderson often moving more into the middle as he normally does whilst outwide evra was allowed the run on him. But all in all a great performance from johnson, and hopefully the injury is all good.

Skrtel was great, the sort of performance he was giving when he was player of the season, and i don't think rodgers would have felt so inclined to buy another center back if skrtel gave those performances last season. He stuck tight to van persie, trying to knick the ball away without giving away silly fouls, something he used to do previously. I was watching the arsenal game after and it was something koscielny was trying to do with soldaldo, and there was a few times he knicked soldaldo and gave away free kicks in good areas, the fact skrtel didn't do that at all (from memory) speaks volumes about how good of a performance it actually was.

I think Lucas is starting to return to his best. The sort of terrier like performance he used to give, mixed in with his gained experience resulted in a great performance. Yes skrtel was class, but he would had more to deal with if lucas didn't put in the performance he did. The way he kept being the second man following up, something rodgers often spoke about last season when talking about pressing, but something that we couldn't implement properly due to the lack of the right players along with lucas's injury. It was great to watch, and it certainly helped enrique out against valencia, who would have proven more troublesome than he was if lucas hadn't helped. Hopefully as the season kicks on he can meet and exceed his previous performances.

From an attacking perspective there's not really much to say, as for the most part we didn't do much of it. Aspas from the word go looks like he'll be inconsistent, quality at times and invisible at other, i guess that's why he was £7 million and not £20 million. It was a hard game for him with us dropping back, and he had probably not had a game like this in Spain before, so there's obviously reasons for the poor performance. As the season goes on I expect him to be a good option to bring off the bench, or starter against the lower teams, where his movement could prove more effective against lesser quality players. Coutinho i think is slightly similar, he has the quality to perform against top teams, but whereas he doesn't get the space he does against the lower teams, it'll take him a few more big games to adapt to them. Then hopefully we'll see a more consistent coutinho, who is class against everyone!

Henderson, as per usual played quality, he played in a similar role out on the right to where he played when he first joined (slight differences obviously). And the difference in quality of performance from when he first joined to now, was huge. He showed experience beyond his years, kept the ball well, helped contain United to the point they were passing it off the pitch, and attacked with the ball, allowing us to push up. Everything you could have wanted from him, he gave and more.

Sturridge, as he said was no where fully fit and it showed, the power was not as evident, but the class still was. The movement for the goal was genius, to time it that perfectly so that he was onside was just something else. And i think he's showing a bit more maturity, rather than running at vidic and being clean through, he held the ball up, waited for options, allowed us to push up and played it back to gerrard who played it out to the other side. This maturity, along with the type of performances he's been giving, can lead us to having the best striker in the prem imo.

So yeah overall great performance,  a shame it's the international break as we looked confident, and it would have been nice to see our new signings, but i'll take being top at the first break to be honest! Long may it continue 

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Welbeck was like Dirk Kuyt on LSD.

 

The atmosphere inside the ground was great, it was the first time I'd managed to get to Anfield this season and I was made up that the whole crowd was up for it.

The early goal did make for a long game, but at the same time, they did seem quite uninspired. rooney as usual didn't manage to get fit for a game against us, is it just me or does he seem to do this an awful lot?

Gerrard and Lucas were great, I didn't see anything from United's midfield that troubled them that much.

Enrique was a little less good, I hope Johnson gets some plaudits for his performance as he had a much better game than some of his recent appeareances.

Agger and Skrtel looked like the competent, solid CB pairing we all hoped they were going to be back in the heady days of 08/09 when Hyypia and Carragher were heading towards retirement, it seemed our future was assured with Martin and Danny. Well they've not quite turned into Hansen/Lawro (and as long as that stays true into their punditry careers I won't complain too much to be honest) but I'd be happy for them to carry on like that if it means more clean sheets.

A word on Mignolet - I have to say I wouldn't have been surprised if Reina had conceded from a chance of United's in this game, he has seemed to have bad times against RVP in the past and I'm glad we have Big Mig ()or whatever the fuck his nicknames going to be) in there as a great shot-stopper. I'm not quite sold on the current 'distribution matters shit, it's all about shot stopping, distribution doesn't win you games' mantra on here, as I'm quite sure Reina must have assisted or set in motion a fair few with his clearances and throws during his tenure between the Anfield sticks. However, I'm more than happy to have made the change, especially as Reina let in a couple of dodgy ones for Napoli the other day and might not ever recapture his early form for us anyway.

Not sure what Aspas is all about yet, i'll need to see more of him, but he's pretty busy. I liked sterling's sub appearance, I do think he's on the cusp of reaching a batter level than last season. He seems to work really hard, the occasional brainfart aside.

Liking the new-look slimline Rodgers as well. Smooth.

[MapBuH]

Obviously delighted to win this game. Beating that lot is always so good, the fact it made us 3 wins from 3 and no goals against was even sweeter.

I can't deny that second half was a very nervy affair for me. I wish I shared that belief some of you have posted about - that they never looked like doing it, that certain player selections meant this or that, etc. We sat back very deep and challenged them to break us down and though I don't really have a problem with that per se, I just wasn't convinced we could hold out as although our back line has looked a lot better this season, I thought that against the usual 'famous final 20' from Utd we'd eventually leak a soft equaliser from a scramble in the box or something.

However, that 'famous final 20' never materialised. Indeed, their attacks for the entire match were pretty lame and caused us very little worry. I'm not sure whether it is actually down to Ferguson leaving, Moyes' tactics or just a general combination of everything coupled with them just really not having that great a team, but it wasn't the Utd I've been used to seeing. If you take out the Moyes factor, you'd still think that a title-winning team would still have enough about it to play their usual game and actually throw everything at us - perhaps the loss of Rooney was really that much of a big deal. You just can't imagine players like Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Van Persie etc would sit back and roll over if they didn't think the tactics they'd been set weren't working - especially losing in such a huge game. Maybe it was an off day, but they just didn't look like a team that were going for the win (or even desperately trying to scrape a draw) - a very stark change from the teams Ferguson's brought to Anfield over the years.

I'm probably doing Brendan a disservice here because had Utd actually come out all guns blazing then you'd like to think he had relevant plans in place to adjust our tactics and cope. I think I'm just used to seeing us (and to be fair, the rest of the league too) concede late goals to their constant pressure.

For us though, it was massively refreshing to get the win. We almost eased to it (although as I said I do wonder had Utd actually stepped up their game sufficiently in the second half whether we'd have managed to hold on), though I was fairly disappointed to see how often we were losing the ball in the second period. The first half I thought we were fairly comfortable, though I wish we'd have managed to click just that once more and one of our moves had resulted in a second goal whilst we were in control.

Skrtel was great - a slight worry initially for me because Brendan clearly doesn't want him as a starter in his ideal team and also he hasn't played much competitive football lately, but let's not forget this was a player of the season a couple of years ago. Henderson was fantastic again, he's really growing into an integral part of our team. He's improved his ability to receive the ball and take the play on whereas last season I felt he was a little guilty of going sideways/back too often. Maybe it's coaching, maybe it's Dr Peters, maybe it's just confidence - whatever it is you can see he's grown as a player (and is still growing). His lung capacity is awesome, the lad never looks tired and he was flying up and down the pitch, closing people down and making sure he was in space and available all the time.

Gerrard and Lucas were brilliant. Johnson gave his best performance in recent memory (and then got injured ). Sturridge, despite not being 100% was yet again all over the place - hopefully he isn't involved in the internationals and can get some recovery time in before the next game. Wisdom looked good when he came on - thought his confidence might have taken a knock from his role as centre back against Notts County but he was calm and effective. So many positives!

Overall, I think we'll be given much sterner tests this season. However with the confidence we breed from these hard-fought victories, Suarez to return and the strength we've just added in Sakho and Moses I think we'll be in a better position when those tests come around. It's only 3 games (and I'm ignoring the 'top of the league' nonsense purely because of that) but I'm beginning to get a good feeling about this season. I'm not going crazy singing about a title challenge from the rooftops but I'm optimistic we can give that top 4 a real, credible go at the least. Then, our most important decision of the next window may well be an extension for Mr Rodgers

[helmboy_nige]

Whisper it quietly. There's a strange but slightly familiar feeling sweeping across Anfield. We haven't felt it for so long we'd almost forgotten it existed.

Confidence.

Despite worrying openly, hands on face, in the Kop for most of the second half, I've never felt so confident every time they won a corner or free kick.  I put it down to the first half performance.  We were so in control, without creating much, that their star striker had to resort to crying to referees and bowling over our CBs. Rodgers plan worked and it got under Man Us skin in a way I haven't seen for a while.  The success was built in that first half because when everyone trudged off the field, Man U were out of shape and risking having a man sent off, and all because we put two men on van Persie and every player acted as if their life depended on stopping him.

Don't get me wrong, I was screaming at the pitch from about the 50 minute mark that we were sitting too deep and inviting them on, but on looking back it seemed like a part of the plan.  Aston Villa are built on counter-attacking.  So get a goal, invite them on and let's see if they can change their game plan.

They couldn't.

Moyes is a cautious manager and does not enjoy having to dictate play. Once we were a goal up we invited them to attack us, kept it tight and counted on Moyes not having a plan B.

He didn't.

As much as I dream of us destroying Man U 12-0 with the type of sexy dominant football that doesn't actually exist, this felt much much sweeter. We beat them, dare I say it, the Alex Ferguson way. Not by trying to play great football, but by trying to undermine everything the opposition does and then hit them hard. For all the possession and drives forward they created very very little, which is a testament to how tight we kept things.

There are negatives to the win.  There are teams out there with a plan B and we can't rely on 1-0 leads for the whole season.  Mignolet and Skrtel (despite great team performances) resorted to hoofing the ball up field far far too much.  Coutinho, Sterling (when he came on) and to a lesser extent Sturridge struggled in the second half because we couldn't get the ball to their feet.  We still don't really have an outlet for pumped balls up field and so we need to be far far smarter when we get the ball back after sustained pressure.

My final negative point is regarding Suarez.  The man is a genius on the pitch, but this result was built on teamwork and there have certainly been times when Suarez acts much more as an individual.  How will his return affect the balance?  I am probably worrying unnecessarily but it is on my mind. What would have happened had Suarez been on the pitch?  Would we have had a greater outlet because of having his skill higher up, or would we not have been as tight and disciplined across the team resulting in greater holes for Man U to exploit?

Three wins from three, a good end to the transfer window and Hodgson had to endure his favourite team get beaten while sitting in the 'cheap' seats.

Swansea away will be an interesting test. They've struggled so far, but this will be the first match in which we've faced a team that does like to dominate possession and attack. I don't think we'll be able to resort to the tactics of Villa away or Man U at home for that one.

Right now the team has great belief and confidence.  We still have to see how they react to going a goal down.  We showed some great fight last season, so let's hope it continues.

Oh and atmosphere?  Amazing.

[Phil M]

At least add something original rather than just blinding quoting someone else, this is what the round table idea is for.

[Callaghan.]

It was a battle of wits between Cleverley and Wisdom.

[L666KOP]

People seem to underestimate the impact that Aspas had.

Until his sloppy touches somewhat tempered his game I had him down for Man of match.

Completely and utterly kept Carrick out of the game, and when he went off they took more of a hold of the game.

This wasn't the UTD of old, I can't remember too many occasions where they got behind us out wide, sure, they had wingers on the pitch, and their fullbacks compressed the play, but I think it may have hindered them in the end. Who have they got that could just drop in a 10yd diagonal pass to split the CB and FB for an onrushing wide player ?

We surrendered a lot more possession than I would have liked, but dare I say it we look more like the solid defensive unit under Rafa, when 1-0 was more likely enough to secure the points.

Lucas was imperious, certainly approaching his best form again, his ability to second guess an opponents pass is nothing short of telepathic.

Only one slight critisism, I'd like Sturridge to perhaps lay it off a touch sooner when he has support, but it's a minor point, and one I make just so I can balance the piece.

This was one of those encounters when I genuinely thought that Fergi'e would have coaxed an equaliser out of his side, it looks as though old Davey boy doesn't have the same ability.

It would have been interesting to see Marriners decision on the Wellbeck 'flop' had the old ginsoak been sat in the dugout..........

[Frizzo]

It would have been interesting to see Marriners decision on the Wellbeck 'flop' had the old ginsoak been sat in the dugout..........

I thought the exact same thing.

I know it's a tired cliche now, but if that was Suarez flopping like that we'd still be hearing about it from Moyes. Because its Welbeck it's a "clear penalty".

[jambutty]

I think I got "ya fuckin prick"?

I believe his exact words were 'Fuck off you cheating fucking prick'. with 'Wanker!' Thrown in at the end for good measure.

As the Anfield Wrap lads remarked, we've started to adopt a ref influencing facet to our game that we never had before.

What I notice most this year is that refs seem to be relieved that Corporal Nosehair is no longer prowling MU's sidelines and treats the fuckers just like anyone else now.

[wah00ey]

I watched it on Sky and fired up the surround sound.  It sounded like there were no Liverpool fans in the ground, only Mancs.  Sky must have only had microphones in the away end.  Just wondered if anyone else noticed this?

[Yorkykopite]

This was the day when Bill Shankly conveyed his thoughts to the players. He always said he could do that. But the way he headed the ball in for Sturridge was a late masterpiece. Well done Bill.

We're developing resilience and self-belief and if we carry on like this a virtuous circle will form, with the players feeding off the Kop's own self-belief. Of course it was very scrappy in parts and we didn't pass the ball very well at all but it was fantastic to see the spirit and collectivism in this team.  Even the way we celebrated our goal was wonderful to watch. Rodgers has clearly instilled a fighting spirit in the squad. And it seemed obvious to me, after watching that celebration, that the manager has done a Shanklyism on Daniel Sturridge. He's told him he's the greatest striker in Britain and that even at 70 per cent fitness there's no one better.

We played so aggressively and it's no wonder our best players on the day were the defenders. I include Man-of-the-Match Lucas Leiva in that. As has been said above his powers of anticipation are now becoming freakish. It's as if he's read the script already. A big part of Man United's inability to connect midfield and attack was their repeated and dispiriting failure to get past Lucas. Gerrard too of course, who pulled out two lovely slide tackles to hook the ball free of players threatening to break. Let's hope that Glen Johnson is ok though. His two home performances this season have been excellent and we're a much poorer team without him. He can't defend of course....

As for Man Utd, they look weak to me. Moyes made a muck-up of their line-up. Giggs on the wing was a nice gift to us. Young on the other one was even nicer (how easy is that man to press?). And Jones at right back? What a shame he went off injured so early. I don't understand what Moyes has been up to since he took over at Old Trafford. He must have spent years at Everton thinking of all the wonderful players he'd like to bring to Goodison but couldn't afford. But now he's got a big fat purse he's settled on Fellaini! Now it's possible that the players he always used to covet are Cleverley, Nani, Anderson, Jones, Welbeck and Smalling. That would at least explain the lack of new acquisitions. If I was a United fan I'd be furious. It's as if Hodgson has taken the reins in Manchester. Long may it last.

We'll start to dominate games soon and start sharing the goals around. I'd love to see Coutinho at the apex of midfield, but that means finding a wide man on the left. Sterling made a decent case for himself when he came on, if only because he neutralised Valencia, their best player (along with the liar). But Moses will be interesting I think.

Can't wait for the next game. That's the way it should be.

[GrkStav]

I am pressed for time but I wanted to register a thought regarding our formation:

I haven't looked at heat maps and average positions, but one thing I am almost certain of is that we were not in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Clearly we defended in a 4-4-2 (not a particularly rigid one).

I am of the opinion that we were once again in fluid, modified 4-4-2 all game long, even when Aspas and Sturridge were up top.

I apologize for the shortness and shallowness of my post, in advance.

[Phil M]

Forgive me but I'm using the Daily Mail's resources here fwiw:

Steven Gerrard v Man U



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/matchzone/index.html#s2013-c8-m694924

[Robinred]

Really good to see the positivity in here. I am very excited at the direction we're going in, and I'm even more delighted to have been proven wrong about Lucas. I had thought his full recovery from that awful injury wasn't happening and that he'd lost at least a yard. I was wrong, and the "first two yards in his head" were wonderful to behold.

Agree with the many references to Moyes' start, and the subtle but potentially enormous difference it will make not to have SAF's overweening influence on officials at key moments of close games.

Finally, Steven Gerrard; how wrong he has proven those (I include myself) who were writing off his ability to play where he's playing, the more so as his legs allegedly "went". He was awesome in this match, both as a player and as a leader. We are seeing in him one of our greatest ever footballers - not an original thought I know, but one that we need to remind ourselves of periodically.

[Zimagic]

I liked sterling's sub appearance, I do think he's on the cusp of reaching a batter level than last season. He seems to work really hard, the occasional brainfart aside.

It was very interesting watching Sterling when he came on. I think a lot of fans expected that the threat of his pace would be pushing their line back and that he'd sit in that space between winger and full back and launch counter attacks for 10minutes but every chance he got he was back tight inside Valencia stopping him putting pressure on Jose. There was even an occasion that I feel he'd have nicked the ball coming back had he not been so intent at being in the right place.

You see him do it once, fine. Twice, sure, but when he's chasing back to be in exactly the right place even when the ball has gone over the other side of the pitch you start to realise that it's not just a body behind the ball and make it difficult for them, it's a very disciplined role he's playing in our defensive cover in order to take away the attacking threat that Valencia poses.

Put that willingness to get his job done right at his age with all his natural attacking ability and the heady exuberence with which he attacks forward and you realise that firstly, he's growing as an all round player and secondly, that BR knows his shit and how best to communicate it.

Well done the lad, well impressed.

[vicar]

Great result and fantastic to have 3 out of 3, but very nervous second half. Some strong performances from Henderson, Lucas and Skrtel in particular, hard to pick a MoTM from that three. Henderson’s work rate was fantastic, Lucas seemed to be everywhere and got to the ball first so many times to cut out passes and van persie hardly got a kick out of Skrtel.

Gerrard seemed to play a little deeper (?) and his longer range passing was a little off, but he more than made up for it in work rate, desire and tackling (the one on Welbeck was perfect) and it looked like he was walking alongside the the ref giving him his thoughts which used to be a scholes tactic. His goading of van persie was superb as others have noted.

Johnson too had a decent game, it certainly felt like he defended better, although he persisted in continuing his his dribbles until they got blocked off too frequently. Wisdom played well when he came on too, he was positioning himself better to pick out long range balls. Enrique looked a little limited going forward but defended well. Agger only really made one mistake, the slip that let van persie down the line, but looked in control and enjoying playing alongside Skrtel.

Going forward it was telling that it came out that Sturridge was carrying an injury, as despite holding up the ball well and scoring again, he didn’t look quite the same. At the time I put it down to being a bit isolated, certainly in the second half. Although he did a lot of tracking back. Aspas worked hard but looked a little lightweight particularly when receiving the ball with his back to goal, he is better receiving the ball running down the channels for me. Couthino looked lively at times but struggled to impose himself on the game, but he did a lot of defensive work and I think the work all the front 3 put in added to our solidity.
Alberto has a lot of potential, he had very limited time and struggles to pick up the pace, but just looking at how he receives the ball and looks around and moves suggests there is real potential there. Its a shame we don’t have european games to give him time, I think they would suit him.

I am a little concerned at our second half performances so far this season. Is it deliberately sitting back, being pushed back, are we tired, or a bit of all three? You expect a team like utd to come at you a bit more in the second half but we seemed to have resorted to defending 1-nil leads, not sure if I can stand watching too many of those.

Anyway, all in all a great sunday and some good work in the transfer window, things are looking brighter. Lets hope the owl doesn’t spoil it and make Sturridge’s injury any worse.

[kkjellquist]

The game had 0-0 or 1-1 written all over it beforehand and I would have taken the draw if offered.  However, I think we had a nice break for the 1-0 and knew it was either 1-0 or 1-1 after that.  Thankfully we are a bit better defensively and A LOT better mentally at this point! 

The key for me was frustrating the United attack and absolutely getting in their heads a bit.  I can't recall RvP being that visibly upset.  We got them off their game and piling up the first half yellows was huge.

Thought Marriner had a pretty good day as well. 

Anyone else notice Phil Dowd dropped at least 20lbs?!

[GrkStav]

Once again, upon the 2nd viewing, I realized that our second half tactical change was the result of a combination of our own effectiveness decline, the opposition's improved functioning, and a 'from-the-start' instructed 'Plan B' being triggered.

We were not THAT much more in control in the first half, to be perfectly honest.

[hijackie4]

I love it when everything in the world is normal

[LFCDynamic]

Things you can use to describe our performances lately:

Belief, confidence, team-work, vision, passion, hunger, mental-toughness, determination and a real drive to succeed...

Words we haven't used in a long long time to describe our Reds. I'm lovin' it

[the 92A]

When a team with a passing ethos start to dig in and win games relying on energy self belief and teamwork you've got a good base for the future. I'm not getting carried away in the slightest but believe we are starting to build something with real potential. To be topical Shankly was never all-knowing, he learnt from practice, tried things out to see if they worked and made changes when necessary. Rodgers seems to act on his mistakes, a rare ability he may be a bit David Brentish at times but there's a good feeling building and the return of Suarez, a partner for Agger and someone with more experience on the left all bode well but an injury to Lucas or Gerrard would be hard to cover for at the moment. Time to start enjoying this has the potential to be an exciting ride.

[new-red]

As much as I would have liked to have seen us dominate the match with 60% possession and 15 shots on target, I think this type of win is actually a bigger boost to the squad because it will give the team great confidence that they can grind out a result no matter how much pressure they face from the opposition.

As a result, the side will be able to maintain their composure far more easily in intense, anxious moments which will allow us to build on these results and see out more wins regardless of the circumstances.

However, I have some concerns that we are apparently frightened of playing our style against teams with pace in attack. I am happy that we do seem to take the game to the opposition in search of the opening goal but after we get we seem to stop trying to assert ourselves on the match. Part of that could be due to the fact that teams really are pressing our CMs and CBs in possession deep in our own half. This causes trepidation that we could lose the ball in a very dangerous area giving the opponent a quality chance to attack which leaves us with 2 choices: playing it out of defense which requires precise execution and little margin for error, OR lumping it forward so that if we do lose possession it is in the opponents defensive third and therefore poses minimal immediate threat to our defense.

I hope we can continue to develop the team chemistry so that playing it out of defense is not such a risky proposition when faced with opposition pressure.

Ultimately, I am very happy with this win and am confident that against lesser opposition we can take control of midfield and possession and make sure that we suffocate the opposition's attack and sap their will

[jaffod]

Anyone else notice Phil Dowd dropped at least 20lbs?!

It's a well known fact Ferguson was a chubby chaser but Moyes likes 'em a bit more toned.

[Stateside Red]

Thought the same about them. They had the ball, but I never got the impression they threw everything overboard to get the goal. You'd expect Hernandez to fire a couple of shots. The best they created was that RvP chance from an angle. It was a good one, but Mignolet made it very difficult for him, even if he had managed to get the shot on target. Maybe it was us defending well, maybe it was them who lacked the attacking edge, maybe a bit of both. It could be that I have this false image of Utd as a team that always managed to create lots of chances near the end. It's an image everyone seems to have about Ferguson's team. That they'd always get the late goal. More or less in every game. But perhaps that's just not true. And now, with Moyes in charge, everyone thinks it's a big difference. But the difference is only in our minds. I don't know, but it's a good thing either way. When teams start to think "they're good at this, they always score late goals", then it happens. Hopefully, things will be different under Moyes, hopefully teams will see them differently.

Could only be in my mind as well but I don't think Utd were getting the 'soft' calls they used to ... seems to me (at the end esp) we got a few free kicks from overzealous Mancs that might not have been called before. Thought the extra time was fine.

To all those who watched the match on the television, (as I did because I live in America) was there a slight delay in the audio during the first half broadcast?

I say this because in America there certainly was an out-of-sync delay in the first half and I would just like to know if it was the international broadcast's fault or was it typical NBC technical incompetence. I'm thinking it is the latter.

I've noticed a delay in almost all of the matches shown (DirecTV in central PA) ... really hope they sort it out. Also wasn't happy at all when they cut away completely during the CP-Sund match for the President's speech.

[CHOPPER]

Forgive me but I'm using the Daily Mail's resources here fwiw:

Steven Gerrard v Man U



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/matchzone/index.html#s2013-c8-m694924

Worra mucky pup.



It was Villa away - get the goal, sit deep. It worked, its not nice to watch, very 3-4 years ago, but it was effective. Prefer last years approach, with obviously a bit more steel at the back.

Onwards and upwards.


The welsh next.

[Sabu Pundit]

my scouse to Carragh-phrase the Beadle’s Mr John Lenin “Before SHANKLY there was nuffin’.” He raze an’ build Libpole from the dusty stones – the Alfa an’ the Omega watch (although he wood no Dowd where a Citizen on account he a manna the pebbles). Like the Alvis, SHANKLY only kneed juan name, like Alvis he gotten the purrin’ burrin’ arrestin’ vox and like Alvis him can be dental fired by his Cilla-wet alone…the alms outreachin’ both receivin’ acclaim an’ offerin’ south-asian. Unlike Alvis he loyal to his Mrs, he never Beckham pill-plopper blobber and never make no Hrubesch film like “Girl Harpy” or “Bin Libpole” rates sabu pundit.

On the Cajun off SHANKLY sanctuary, it had Toby (not Aldo-Weirdo the ex-Ajax) are eternal infernal enema: the Minge Un-Knighted. Scouse done havin’ sum Hanks-society beef four it beakers Libpole take an Excel time vs Nuts Candy. Oui did sauce stain Ian Dury to nude signage e.g Mr Car Lot Hooray an’ Mr Elysee Soccer then sum brickin’ all over the y-front in Case the teem be oh-so Tyre…Blockheads! Oyez off litter Fife!

In Mr Anusol Reg, Libpole is urn-earth a gym an’ he Worns even fit – he pile the precious on boggle ice Mr Rabid Moist an’ his retch-hard off fail years. Like Barber Woodlouse would Ince struck, Libpole ain’t drop this Leeds: Bentos Rojas know this sins he say “You train dogs” then Libpole hound and ‘Arry the Minge, like a Curb-Arouse [not David Pleat] from the Undies World. All are plays in the yoof full teem got off a Borg-mind: all Clothes down an’ stork the Minge like a Foetal Attraction. Sabu had a cockle-hoop at this oh-so Injun work ethnic, this Lotus Esprit de Kop an’ that. Them awe diggin’ deep, even the BeBe  Master Fillet Cootchy-Coo shown a darkside to him fantasy fussball when done cut-down Fell Jones…timber-ton! Glen ain’t buck this trend: he left on crotches.  Butt mayhap Best offal was the Agger-vation like in goode auld daze – Mr Stiffy-ji an’ Van Pussy: small fore Head-to Grecian 2000 less-Head, mano eh? ManU, Erked-Killie vs Hick-Turd.

Three gems, three wince, three gol an’ no concession…a perfick triBute, it seam, to are surrogate Pop. Thank Bill very much.   

[Malaysian Kopite]

[TepidT2O]

Minge Un-Knighted.

Oh god......


: lmao

Mr Anusol Reg

Just seen this..... Genius, utter genius

[Harinder]

Master Fillet Cootchy-Coo

[freddwarf]

Great start, 3 wins, no goals conceded but our 2nd half performance was again patchy. Poor against United, N.County and Villa in the 2nd half.

We are sitting to deep. Last season a better United would have got the draw or even nicked it. Don't know if this run is going to see us close down in the 2nd half every time we go in a goal up.

We have to kill teams off. Carry on with this 2nd half syndrome, teams will take the chances and we will be back in the same
defensive rut that in the end stiffled the chances of Houllier, Rafa,Hodgson and Kenny.

Understandable against United but if we really want top 4, we have to kill off teams esp those outside the top 5/6. That's the way to amas points.

Good start and it mayby that Rodgers feels we have to protect leads as we really have only one striker and he's carrying a knock. But do not want to see these negative 2nd half tactics deployed once Suarez is back and Sturridge is 100% fit .