I DON’T do this well. Those of you familiar with my previous work for TAW might recall my reaction to the Chelsea loss last season when I came close to an Alan Partridge-style rampage to Dundee.
I don’t do losing well generally. I’m the guy who will rage quit FIFA, the guy who will refuse to make the last chess move that leads to checkmate, the guy who throws his cards out the window during a bad poker game, and swiftly follows them if there’s money on the line. Yeah, I’m that guy.
I started following football, and therefore the Reds, in the 1993-94 season. This of course meant that for quite a while I never really tasted glory as a Liverpool fan. I missed out on all that. While we were winning stuff in the late 80s and my dad was cheering them on, I was fuming that I couldn’t have my cartoons on. I miss those days. Cartoons can’t break your heart… well, apart from Bambi, and The Lion King, and that episode of Johnny Bravo where he gets shunned by Farah Fawcett (he just wanted to be loved!) Cartoons can’t hurt you, not like the Reds can.
Following Liverpool from then until now, almost the entirety of that time has involved my life being made significantly worse by Manchester United and the things they do.
You may be wondering what my reaction was to yesterday then, well here it is. I dropkicked a squirrel. Okay not really (before the animal rights people get on to me), but it still wasn’t pretty.
As Juan Mata inexplicably Mark Hughes-ed the second for United, I’d had enough. Before I put my foot through the telly in what would have been the most accurate kick from anyone in a Liverpool shirt up until that point, I left the house.
Every memory of every painful loss to that lot came flooding back, the Cantona cup final goal that made me fall off the back of the sofa, the late Solskjaer goal that made me break my hand on a table, and the O’Shea winner that almost lost me my flat deposit at Uni. Strong windows thankfully.
I had stuff to do. I drove angrily to the pet shop, angrily stormed in and angrily picked up two 30 litre bags of cat litter in a feat of strength only made possible by anger, then angrily slammed them on the counter while I angrily handed my money over. I had now had some stuff that allowed cats to shit in my house, as Juan Mata had been doing only 30 minutes earlier.
I got back in time to see Simon Mignolet put a short-lived smile on my face as he saved Wayne Rooney’s penalty, but I’d missed what I understand was a spirited fightback from the 10 men — spirit that had been shown in no way whatsoever in the opening hour of the game. I didn’t even see Sturridge’s brilliant finish until I could finally bring myself to put Sky Sports News on at midnight.
I felt an element of guilt having not been able to stick through it, but there’s only so much of seeing the Reds get beaten up by that guy who kept flushing my head down the toilet when I was young that I could take. It wasn’t meant to be this way.
Last season was glorious for so many reasons, but largely because we annihilated United. Two decades of waiting for the tide to turn, having to watch them lifting title after title, and just waiting for that moment when the inevitable cycle brought around Liverpool dominating them again. Last year was that moment. We finished five places and 20 points ahead of United, something that comforted me slightly in spite of the title ending just out of reach. We may not have got the title, but at least we thoroughly bloodied the nose of our arch nemesis. It was slight vindication for a childhood haunted by Red Devils.
This season began with us being utterly terrible, but it wasn’t so bad as United were doing the same. Sure they were picking up more points but that was clearly down to their inherent jamminess. We had the capacity to improve, and we did, a lot. United also had the capacity to improve, but didn’t, though continued to pick up points that were so jammy, schoolchildren were wiping their sandwiches on the side of Old Trafford, and getting stuck to it.
Yesterday wasn’t jammy. United were excellent. They had a gameplan to play against the formation that had foiled so many others, and they executed it perfectly. I had refused to see the warning signs. Their performance against Spurs last week, to me, was far more about Spurs being Spursy than it was United being Unitedy. If we played as we could, they didn’t have a prayer.
Sadly, we put in a performance that is starting to become all too familiar. First half, we were terrible, as we were against Blackburn, Besiktas (home and away) and Swansea. The mighty Liverpool who swat teams away with super-fast starts to games, has become a team that can barely raise a little finger before the half-time oranges are served. Unlike against Swansea, we couldn’t ride our luck enough in the first half and gave ourselves too much to do in the second. Enter Steven Gerrard.
Our captain was here to save the day as he has done so often, he was here to play against the enemy for the final time, he was here to… oh, exit Steven Gerrard.
And that was that. We were being thoroughly outplayed by United with eleven men, so with ten it was going to be a walk in the park for them, especially when it became apparent that Martin Atkinson had no intention of matching the teams up. Phil Jones’s foul on Jordan Henderson was enough for a red on its own, as arguably was his – as Gary Neville put it – ‘WWE style’ attack on Adam Lallana in the first half. Two possible reds only ended up with one yellow, as did an accidental trip by Joe Allen. That’s what we were dealing with.
I can’t blame Gerrard too much, not because I don’t think he was a complete idiot, he was, a complete idiot who may well have cost us the game, but it would be hypocritical of me to castigate him too much.
As I watched the game with my fume on, I noticed a point in the first half when Lallana was chasing a lost cause. The ball rolled through to De Gea, but just in case, Chris Smalling decided to step in the way to potentially block Lallana, akin to an NBA player running defence. I put myself in Lallana’s shoes and still had ‘WWE style’ in my head. I would have speared him. 100mph run straight through him and dump tackled him to the ground. It would have been a red, it may have endangered the player and been a bad example to kids, but at the time I was a little disappointed in Lallana for not doing it.
I’ll leave the intelligent breaking down of the game to others, I’m still not quite ready to watch it back as a tactical analysis. The one thing I did take from the game was that my critique of Joe Allen that turned him good appears to have been matched by my praise of Albi Moreno turning him bad. If Moreno’s pass completion percentage was in double figures yesterday I will be astonished.
Anyway, the game’s gone. It’s done. We messed it up and we lost, nothing to be done about it other than this. Win the war.
In years gone by, as I sat there and watched United win titles, there were moments of joy, extreme joy as we got results against them. We even managed to do the double over them a few times. Those were great times, but they were short-lived as our triumphs against them were all well and good, but we still ended up behind them. Bittersweet.
Let’s make that the case for them here. They’ve done the double over us, they can dine out on that if they want, but this is far from over. There is very much still a fourth spot to play for here. It’s going to mean us getting an unlikely result at either Arsenal or Chelsea, and hoping that United don’t continue to win their big games (they have a lot to come), but this is still very much on.
The pain is still raw, but if we dust ourselves down and get back on our horse, we can still finish ahead of them. They’re playing well all of a sudden, and Louis van Gaal is getting credit for outwitting Brendan Rodgers, which he did, but this is also a man who took until March to realise that starting £65m pair Ander Herrera and Juan Mata would make his team play better. He and they are still more than capable of messing up their season.
For the tide to turn we need fourth (or higher) and we need them fifth (or lower). Last summer there was this air of ‘it was a one off’ after United finished seventh, and an element of it after Liverpool came second. If we can get a top four place ahead of them, then those seeds of doubt in them and faith in us will increase massively. This needs to happen. The ten-year old me needs this.
This is a huge end to the season, phenomenally huge for now and the future. If we are going to turn that tide, we need to make sure that although the battle was lost, the war gets won.
I really don’t want to have to stock up on Toblerones again.
Read: Match review: Liverpool v Manchester United
Read: Match ratings: Liverpool v Manchester United.
Listen: Post-match reaction with Neil Atkinson, Gareth Roberts, John Milburn and Jay McKenna.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Lol…We might lose the battle, but there isn’t any war, Who are we now to have a war with average Manager and mostly average players you’ll be happy to win a battle, let’s face it we don’t have what it take to go to a war UNLESS WE CHANGE THE MANAGER. THE TRUTH ARE ALWAYS SUCKS.
Goodison is that way. Twat.
Lol indeed
Completely agree with feeling hypocritical for being too hard on Gerrard. I can’t imagine how much of a broken man he must feel after last season, the World Cup and then everything he’s had to put up with opposing supporters this season. I was thinking before the game how strong he is mentally to have been able to continue despite everything in the last 12 months and then that happens. It’s a moment of stupidity, but most human beings would’ve crumbled far earlier. Just a shame it happened in such a crucial match.
On a side note, is it possible to get radio city full match commentary anywhere online? I usually watch matches delayed due to time differences and it’d be great to watch every match with that passionate commentary.
Don’t think they put up the full match anywhere, mate. Best they do is 30 minutes of highlights: https://audioboom.com/boos/3011718-liverpool-1-2-manchester-united-sunday-22nd-march-2015
Too bad, maybe someday they will. Cheers, mate.
This game was our “Chelsea Slip” for this season, the moment when LFC got right up to the edge of where we want them to be and somehow, inexplicably but not incomprehensibly, pulled back, shied away, were found out to be not quite ready for prime time. I feel for Gerrard, the loyal servant, and it tears me up that he will be remembered by casual fans for the stamp and the slip in the two biggest games of the past two seasons, but more than anything this is a chance for Brendan Rodgers and the Tricky Reds to move out of Gerrard’s shadow and embark on a new era. Always darkest before the dawn. YNWA.
Good points. It seems to me that when we get on the edge of something, when it REALLY matters, Liverpool just freeze. It’s been going on since the 2007 European Cup Final (imagine the players we could have attracted with 2 European Cups in 3 years…..)
I said a few weeks ago that I’d rather win the FA Cup than finish 4th as I think football should be about glory, and it certainly makes better viewing on the end-of-year DVD. The only caveat I will now add is that I don’t mind finising 5th so long as United finish 6th !!!!
Luckily I haven’t had to put up with any crowing from United-supporting “mates” today. Mainly because, by definition, if they support United then they are acquaintances at best.
Spot on mate, it’s not all over, there’s still time and a great deal of maths on our side.
This needs to be another watershed moment in Brendan’s journey, à la crystal palace. He needs to stop persisting with Raheem at wingback and move him up top. Whether that is on his own or alongside Sturridge, whatever. His best talent is being and Emre is not having the best of times there and needs better protection than Sterling can offer. Is this a time for Johnson to grasp the bull by the horns? In the interests of solidity I’d even prefer to see Manquillo in there. An in – form Markovic would be the rolls – Royce solution though.
It also needs to be a watershed moment for the fans. They need to quit the griping about contracts, the huffing and puffing at every giveaway of the ball. They need to get behind our team exactly as they did in the run – in last season. Make those lads feel respected and appreciated from the first whistle to the last. Luckily our two biggest games are away – the away support never falters. Hopefully we can get something from those two.
Let’s all win the battle.
Skrtl looking like getting a 3 game holiday, Kewell-sorry Lallana and Sturridge injured.
War is over.
At least Sterling might get to play in a more effective position now, maybe even put a smile back on the young lads face! Hopefully Ibe to return soon (unless you’re going to completely ruin my day and say otherwise). And it’s no bad thing keeping Sturridge away from the Hodge, same as Costa “tweaks” his hamstring just before the international break. So maybe all is not lost afterall, well fingers crossed anyway…
Did you see the challenge Jones put in on Lallana? Can’t believe he didn’t get a yellow for it. Reckon Sturridge will be fine and is mainly skipping England duty to work on a few things.
fear its too late. We lost the battle yesterday. Time to start mentally and emotionally getting used to it. Don’t see us making up 6 points on them in the remaining games. We blew it.
I’m not buying all this praise for LVG. I could beat Liverpool. There’s no surprise on match days. The opposition manager just has to keep an eye on who’s injured, or better still Twitter, and he knows the team and the formation of Liverpool. I thought at the start of the season that MOTD had fucked us over with their shit analysis. Jesus Christ, who decides that Alan Shearer is entertaining or enlightening? After the Villa game though, at Anfield, they highlight how we didn’t like being pressed. The clues were there from the previous season when Southampton came to Anfield about 10 games into the season. I think it was Agbonlahor they highlighted pressuring Gerrard from the front, not dissimilar to Suarez does. A few weeks later at West Ham they did the same thing with the same results. It all seemed to get forgotten about then. I was amazed. I expected every team to take that approach. It reared it’s ugly head last Monday though in the first half against Swansea and Carragher couldn’t wait to tell everyone. I would have employed the same tactics as LVG and my 12 year old mentioned something similar before the game. He’s probably been listening to me because I’ve been listening to MOTD and Sky in the same way Big Sam and LVG have.
I question whether it’s sustainable though. I’m happy enough that we can combat it, like Swansea, and win in the second half and I felt yesterday might have been similar, second half. I think our 10 man performance substantiates it more than discredits it. So, I’ve no issues with the system. Knowing what the opposition will do doesn’t necessarily equate to beating them. Utd’s strategy carried risks but it payed off. They got the goal from poor defending and then circumstances dictated their first half gamble wasn’t going to be put to the test. The other thing is, stop our deeper midfielders playing it out. Again, it’s not a secret. I just don’t think LVG deserves as much praise as I’ve seen today. P.s I like Carragher. Apart from anything else I think he’s a brilliant pundit. It just grates on me hearing him criticise us or expose us. I accept that’s his job.
4th place has gone mate. Our run in is no different to Utd’s. We’ve got to make up 6 points in 8 games. Skrtel’s out for 3. If they lose 2 out of 8 we’d have to win all 8. With us having Chelsea and Arsenal away, Utd may have to lose at least 4 of the 8. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t given it hope but I’m looking at it from the view of a great escape mission rather than a race. Each game will be exciting still because you never know with football. Something died inside me yesterday though.
Sorry, I feel I want to clarify something. I honestly believe we can beat both Chelsea and Arsenal away. Whether we will is another thing but I hold no fear for either of them.
“I could beat Liverpool”
What does that say of the manager?
I think, more so it backs up what I was saying yesterday about you always looking for the negative. From my comment, one of these statements is probably true. Either I’m a genius football coach who can easily out think Rodgers or I’m a deluded lunatic who stalks Liverpool forums making ridiculous comments. Now, I’m gonna plump for the latter but you’re clearly going for the former to even ask that question. So, in answer to the question it tells me nothing of the manager and more about me.