So the game came and went and was hardly a classic, neither team played particularly well but over the 90 minutes the result was about right, Liverpool passed the ball and tackled efficiently but didn't quite carry the same goal threat as the home side and once the first goal went in it was always going to be an uphill struggle. Rio Ferdinand was lucky to stay on the field after fouling Suarez when he was the last man but Phil Dowd, possibly trying not to turn the encounter any more heated than it already threatened to be, chose not to even award a free kick, therefore saving himself from having to send off the Utd defender and facing the inevitable wrath of the manager. A five minute spell at the start of the second half where we weren't completely switched on defensively is what cost us, Rooney scoring twice leaving us with a mountain to climb. Suarez finished from close range after a Ferdinand error from a Charlie Adam free kick to give us hope for the last ten minutes but Glen Johnson's long range effort was as close as we came.
Much was made of the pre match handshakes and Suarez refused Evra's hand, the only thing shocking about this was that anybody was actually surprised. Suarez maintains he didn't say the majority of what Evra has claimed, and the part he agrees with he says has been misinterpreted when nothing racial was intended so why did anybody expect him to shake the hand of a man who cost him £40,000 and an eight game ban? In my opinion a handshake from Suarez would've amounted almost to an admission of guilt and having something to apologise for and his determination to stick to his not guilty plea meant this was never really an option. After Evra offered his hand to the Uruguayan it looked like he was being the bigger man. Until 25 seconds into the game when Suarez got the ball and in his blind determination to get to out number 7 he went through Rio Ferdinand and wiped him out instead. Makes you wonder if Rio hadn't got in the way whether or not Evra would have committed a serious foul, maybe Ferdinand getting in the way actually saved the Utd skipper from an embarrassingly early bath.
It wasn't until after the final whistle that any real noise came from the crowd, Evra skipping around the edge of the pitch having to encourage the home crowd to create some volume despite the fact they had just secured a big victory over their rivals. Choosing to jump around celebrating in front of Suarez wasn't clever or necessary and any moral highground he had previously held over his conduct evaporated into the cold afternoon air.
Before the match police confiscated a Utd fanzine carrying KKK masks, showing the true class of the Utd fans and robbing them of any chance to criticise Liverpool supporters for their behaviour over the whole saga. A man was also arrested for wearing an offensive t-shirt, adding to the arrest ten days ago of a supporter at Old Trafford for racially abusing Stoke City players. The problems of abuse and racial abuse in football go much deeper than just Liverpool and Luis Suarez and as long as supporters focus on their rivals behaviour without examining that of their own this won't go away any time soon.
Two meetings in two weeks between English football's two biggest clubs have both resulted in 2-1 wins to the home sides, proving that Liverpool can match Man Utd on any given day but it's the consistency over the course of the season that has to improve drastically. If both teams had been offered one win I expect Liverpool would've been keen to progress in the cup and Utd would've wanted the league points so deep down I think both sets will accept the results that have happened in these two games. Everton beating Chelsea and Tottenham looking like taking all the points from Newcastle means that today's defeat hasn't been particularly costly in our quest for a top four finish, we have our main striker back and scoring, we have a cup final to look forward to and the rest of the season is shaping up to be very exciting, YNWA.
No comments:
Post a Comment