David Pleat gets his Liverpool v Manchester United analysis completely wrong
About the only thing DP gets right in his article is that Manchester United were defensively tight. The rest, I’m afraid, is bollocks.
Their discipline was exceptional: the full-backs Gary Neville and Patrice Evra covered the centre-backs closely, and Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick never strayed forward to support United’s attackers, forming a shield in front of their defence.
Actually, no. Evra was upfield 50% of his time on the pitch, Carrick was always going to be sitting back and Scholes was harassed by Alonso all night in a game where he got very little space. Liverpool kept their midfield tight (mindful of their experience at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture) and it paid off because United didn’t have pace or aggression.
Liverpool continuously knocked on the door, but United never lost their shape. Craig Bellamy could not find space behind the defence to run into, and Dirk Kuyt did not have a single clear chance.
You must be talking about the tap-in Kuyt was a yard away from putting in? Or those crazy periods in the first half (end) and second half (start) where Bellamy was constantly down the right (in the space that Evra had left open), pulling Vidic off his line and troubling him enough that Ferguson brought on Silvestre to shore up the left-back spot?
I’d say more, but DP keeps his pieces remarkably short. And factually incorrect. Is there a correlation? ![]()
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Ahmed Bilal gets his Liverpool v Manchester United analysis PARTLY wrong!
“Scholes was harassed by Alonso all night” - was this game not on in the morning?
Im a MAN UTD supporter and VERY VERY HAPPY TO SAY THAT FOR ONCE THE SCOUSERS / LIVERPOOL WERE ROBBED!!!!!!! WE WON AT ANFIELD, WHOSE TO SAY BARCA WON’T !!!!!!!!
Defensively tight ? Vidic was all over the place.
hehe….irony
You’re all surprised by this? Remember this is the man who, whilst manager of Spurs, derided Kanoute’s decision to represent his country at the ACN by claiming that he didn’t know where Mali was. The man is a cretin.
So United’s defence wasn’t tight. But still you couldn’t score! what does that tell you? You’re supporting a fucked up team, that’s what!!
Its amazing how deluded some Liverpool fans are. Both Everton and Man U noted how ineffectual Liverpool’s forwards are, so they set up a defensive position at Anfield and tried to score from the break, Everton nearly managed it, but United did.
Instead of criticising others, look to your own problems in attack, now added to by the ineffectual Voronin.
Maybe one day you’ll have another fowler, but until then, you’ll never win the Premier League.
Just glad United won with NO controversies.
Did we deserve the win? WHO CARES!!!
We won! thats it.
Defense was totally f’d up. First time I saw Vidic struggling. We should have been at least 3-0 down (if only Liverpool had real strikers). That said, for the first time I was a little bit impressed with Bellamy. He really seemed to harrass both Evra and Vidic.
IMO, seemed like Scholes tried to move forward, but Carrick kept on losing the ball.
What bothers me about this game is that other (better
) teams will now try the same strategy like Liverpool and succeed. Should I be worried?