OBY’s Dugout
Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United
Well, same old story eh? The sun was shining, Liverpool outplaying United but as usual United grab the goal that clenches all 3 points. Right? Wrong, yes we outplayed them but this time was different. The Mighty Reds got the victory and the crucial 3 points that keep us up to speed with Chelsea and now the pressure is on them to get a result against United next week.
So to the match then and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that we were in for a frustrating day after Carlos Tevez fired the ball into the back of Reina’s goal after only 3 minutes. Granted United would go on to outplay us for the rest of the first 10 minutes. But Liverpool’s quality shone through and eventually began not only resisting United’s offence, but countering it and eventually running the game flow. What about the Liverpool goal then? No doubt there was a huge slice of luck and bad defending courtesy of Wes Brown and Edwin Van Der Sar. But, what about the pressure applied from Riera putting Brown on edge? What about the pass from Alonso which cut the United defence into complete disarray causing the whole confusion?
At the start of the second half, Kopites heads were full of plenty of optimism for the next 45 minutes. Eventually after much debate and query, Gerrard was added to the mix, along with Ryan Giggs for united. However Gerrard never had the desired effect (understandable considering he had just had surgery.) giving his first 2 touches away and with his second providing Giggs an opening for a shot from outside the area which tested Reina. So finally, the goal. All credit to Kuyt for not giving up when the ball looked to be going out. He put Giggs under pressure and got a touch to the ball which put him in the perfect position to slide the ball to Babel who may of miss-hit his shot, but who’s arguing about the end result?
Personally I think that our new winger Albert Riera had an amazing debut in a red shirt. His skills fooled the united players all game and his runs were phenomenal. Most impressively, he has already clearly developed a partnership with Brazilian left back Fabio Aurelio. For me, the man of the match award goes to either Riera or Kuyt.
