[Mali_Zeus]

Who was the hottie sitting next to Dog leash today,was it the owners wife ?

Thought the same.

Nice looking milf.





And what a difference a year makes:

 

[mu4c_20le]

Just watched the match again. For our second goal, it was pure karma. The officials were fooled by Henderson when Young played the ball off him, and they missed RvP's touch mere minutes later. Dodgy officiating for both sides but we took our chances, simples.

 

[Kraftwerker]

Thought the same.

Nice looking milf.





And what a difference a year makes:

That first guy is battered.

 

[Kant-ona]

Wait... was this the first match without any injury for us?

 

[bosnian_red]

Wait... was this the first match without any injury for us?

Rojo got injured yesterday in the training before this game, but I'm sure we've gone games without picking up injuries this season.

 

[Whiteside1985]

For once, I'm not too worried about the performance.
We beat the scouse by a comfortable scoreline and it's not often you can relax and enjoy the last half-hour or so of this particular fixture.

Some of our best teams over recent years have managed to under-perform or look scrappy in this fixture; genuine top-quality performances are a bit of a rarity.
I know it's a cliche, but it is all about getting the win for me.
Getting the win and hearing the OT crowd rub Stevie 'No Titles' Gerrard's face in it. Lovely. Today, I am a happy man. I will worry about performance levels and the injury list another day.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Which of Liverpool's signings has even been a modest success? Fair enough they're not nabbing Messi or Ronaldo any time soon, but Balotelli and Lambert? Is that really the best they could manage?

Lambert was like 3 million who cares if he's not good, he was just a plan B. I'd say for the money he's a fine signing.

Alberto looks like a modest success, starting to threaten going forward and clearly one of the worlds most exciting left backs - plenty on here wanted him over shaw last season

 

[R'hllor]

I know there are some or most out there saying how Liverpool created way more chances and so on,tbh some of those chances are created(or we helped them in same way) by us,like Sterling`s 1on1 vs DDG. Some passes in our own half were just bad.

 

[lysglimt]

You can't consider a striker 1-on-1 with DDG as a chance...he always saves anyway!

 

[Sam]

I know there are some or most out there saying how Liverpool created way more chances and so on,tbh some of those chances are created(or we helped them in same way) by us,like Sterling`s 1on1 vs DDG. Some passes in our own half were just bad.

Whats irking me is that everyone seems to be talking about Liverpools six missed chances, but what about the fact we scored three goals, and missed two very good chances ourselves?

 

[bosnian_red]

Whats irking me is that everyone seems to be talking about Liverpools six missed chances, but what about the fact we scored three goals, and missed two very good chances ourselves?

Like the arsenal game. We put away our chances, missed a few other good ones but people only focus on what the opponents missed and not that we actually took our chances.

 

[R'hllor]

Whats irking me is that everyone seems to be talking about Liverpools six missed chances, but what about the fact we scored three goals, and missed two very good chances ourselves?

Maybe in their minds that never happened,dunno.

 

[Brightonian]

Whats irking me is that everyone seems to be talking about Liverpools six missed chances, but what about the fact we scored three goals, and missed two very good chances ourselves?

True. Could've been 3-3, but could just as easily have been 5-0.

 

[noodlehair]

I don't really care about that. You can't be conceding 9-10 chances per game regardless of what you do at the other end. We got away with one today. Although scoring 3 goals will always give you half a chance, what we were doing defensively and in midfield was nowhere near good enough. We had no control at all over anything that was happening.

I wouldn't say Liverpool deserved anything though. They were as bad defensively and only had one attacking player who turned up (Sterling), and he looked incapable of scoring. You know it's bad when the least culpable part of a goal you concede is your goalkeeper deliberately diving out the way of the shot.

Until the first goal Liverpool looked like the better team by a mile, but they made it so easy for us to render that irrelevant and after that I was hardly biting my nails.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Wait... was this the first match without any injury for us?

Don't speak too soon. Rooney did go off, may have tweaked his ankle again? Fellani took a bit of a bashing on his back a few times as well.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

I don't really care about that. You can't be conceding 9-10 chances per game regardless of what you do at the other end. We got away with one today. Although scoring 3 goals will always give you half a chance, what we were doing defensively and in midfield was nowhere near good enough. We had no control at all over anything that was happening.

I wouldn't say Liverpool deserved anything though. They were as bad defensively and only had one attacking player who turned up (Sterling), and he looked incapable of scoring. You know it's bad when the least culpable part of a goal you concede is your goalkeeper deliberately diving out the way of the shot.

Until the first goal Liverpool looked like the better team by a mile, but they made it so easy for us to render that irrelevant and after that I was hardly biting my nails.

I think this might be a slight exaggeration. I thought they were passing it well, but the game hadn't really got going. Sure Sterling could have scored when he sold Jones a good one, but they looked pretty toothless from the start.

What I have noticed about LVGs United is that we don't get out of the blocks very quickly, he wants a team to play with composure from the start. With Fergie there were some games where we just went for the throat from the start. Stats would also suggest the whole games was pretty even. At one stage in the first half it looked like we had 57% of the ball, but it did not feel like it.

 

[ghagua]

As before the 3 point is what counts, but really frustrating to watch. Crazy to criticize when we scored 3 goals, but it's the same shite once again. Thankfully the strikers are on a roll, and De Gea is a brick wall, because the midfield and defenders are really struggling. Everyone seems to be shitting bricks whenever a team presses, and have simply forgotten how to make a simple pass.

 

[Red Stone]

Just watched the match due to being at work when it was played (shite timing, I know), and it's one of the weirdest games I've seen in ages. It's almost miraculous that Liverpool didn't get at least one goal. Big Dave is amazing, but even so Sterling should have buried his chance at the start of the second. On the other hand you have United who just create three chances where it's almost impossible to miss, but very little else. How often does Valencia beat his man as convincingly as he did during the build-up to the first goal? Haven't seen it since 2011. How often does he look up and play the clever pass rather than smash in a cross and hope it pings off a team mate into the net? Haven't seen it in ages either. Sums up how much went our way today. 3-0 doesn't even tell half the story.

Now, some thoughts:

1)
I have a huge issue with our passing game in the first half. Evans, Jones, Fellaini and Valencia must have had more time on the ball more than anyone else on the pitch, and every one of them was a mis-hit pass waiting to happen. As good as Carrick is at moving the ball around, if the players he's passing it to have no idea how to continue the moves it's all good for nothing at all. Fellaini was absolute shite in the first half and misplaced a bucketload of passes, where the one early on was a shocker. Valencia had a similar pass later on and then Evans just tops it after the break with a gift to Sterling where it'd be buried in the net with anyone other than De God in goal. As soon as Herrera came on we started passing with purpose and got the ball to the players who actually have the ability to make things happen. We actually had more possession and more successful passes than Liverpool today, but the ball was being played between a defence that has little ability on the ball and even less sharpness due to a lack of consistent game time. When Liverpool were organized they couldn't get the ball forward to our front three of Mata, Wilson and van Persie at all. Our forwards were completely invisible for 45 minutes, apart from one goal that should have been disallowed. At the same time Liverpool were able to get the ball up to Lallana, Sterling and Coutinho, who kept the ball high up the pitch, making it harder for United to exploit them when they lost the ball.

You look at playmaking masters like Scholes, Xavi, Iniesta and Pirlo and they're almost always choosing the right player to play it to and they're always accurate with their passes, not only in that they play it into their team mate's feet, but that they play it in such a way that it's obvious for the receiver what he has to do next. In the first half especially, I saw countless passes today that found their man, but made it much more difficult for the receiver to continue play quickly. With under- or overhit passes and bad movement our players had to take extra touches, they had to pass the ball back instead of continuing to push forward or they just gave the ball away because Liverpool were allowed to press and force an error before the ball was moved on. While Herrera is a level below the Pirlos and Xavis of this world, he still has the ability of making it easy for his team mates when he plays a pass. As soon as he came on van Persie and Mata got into the game, after being almost invisible in the first half. A midfield of Mata, Herrera, Di Maria, Carrick and/or Blind might not have the physical presence of a midfield with Rooney and Fellaini, but surely it's better from a defensive point of view to have a midfield that can move the ball around and consistently get it to our lethal strikers without risking getting killed off by a counter-attacking team pouncing on a mis-hit pass. When we sort that out, we'll start looking like a team who deserves to win matches. Even though we have six on the trot now, we haven been convincing. As good as Valencia was today and as good as Fellaini has been at times this season, when it comes to build-ups, they're the opposite of what we should be going for.

2)
Jesus fecking Christ what a game by De Gea. He's been immense in a lot of games lately and has probably pulled off a few saves that were more spectacular than anything he did today, especially those against Everton, but today you just had that feeling that no matter what came at him he'd stop it, and make it look easy in the process. An absolute wave of calm in every one-on-one he faced. He knew he wasn't going to get beaten today. I've seen some matches where the keeper is throwing himself all over the place and stopping everything, but I can't remember ever seeing a keeper face as many shots and just going about his business without a single limb flapping about desperately trying to tip the ball away. Even the shot from Balotelli that rattled the crossbar was dealt with in a way where you felt like he was in complete control. He was special today. I can't think of another keeper who would've kept a clean sheet today, even if they'd had the game of their life. A 10 on the ratings without a shadow of a doubt.


Ranting aside, I'm absolutely delighted with the result. It's been way too long since we gave that lot a good pounding, and after last season's debacle it just makes it that much sweeter to hand them a heavy defeat and see them fluff about around that area of the table that I've affectionately come to call "Moyesland", while we're in the process of getting back up where we belong. Order is being restored with each passing day.

 

[Outremangeur]

why do even our own supporters say that we created only 3 chances?

We had the 1v1 from rooney at the start of the second half plus the RVP chance aswell...

 

[Bilbo]

I seem to be saying something like this every week, but that has to be the worst I've ever seen a team play and win 3-0.

It's like teams just don't want to beat us at the moment. I mean we literally gave Liverpool an open goal at one point and Sterling still contrived to faff around instead of kicking the ball in...I guess when you have Welbeck hair it eventually gives you Welbeck finishing.

That said, I thought the forward players all proved their worth today. Mata, RVP, Rooney and the two wingbacks (who didn't actually spend any of the game paying attention to the "back" part). Our defence was awful though and once again Van Gaal tried to play possession tactics without bothering to put anyone in midfield. You can't play keep ball when the only player tasked with keeping the ball is Fellaini. Rooney taking it upon himself to sort things out was the only time when we looked to have any control over what we were doing.

I don't get the Carrick praise tbh. I wouldn't blame him for being played in an impossible position and doing about as well as he could have, but in a home game where an opposition team with no strikers manages to create about 10 good chances, praising anything at all about the defensive set up (aside from the goalkeeper) is completely ridiculous. If we'd tried that against Liverpool last season we could have conceded about 7.

Van Gaal keeps going on about the players needing to improve, but I think in general the players are improving or certainly aren't doing that badly. Most of our wins in this run has been down to individual moments or performances, or just sheer effort, from the players. The problem every week is with the daft contradiction in how Van Gaal wants them to play, and how he sets them up. He's giving them herrings to cut down trees with then slags them off when it doesn't work.

Have to agree with every word of this

 

[gasmanc]

Watching it again but something Ive noticed recently is just how risky our passing game is. We're almost asking the opposition to intercept us and at the start of games they are almost within 6 inches of making an intercept or actually doing it. As the game wears on and the opposition are still chasing our passes that gap of 6 inches opens up to a foot and after around the 60 minute mark it's clearly noticeable just how fecked Liverpool are and they are barely getting within a yard of the ball.
Give the opponent a ball to chase and keep rotating it until they can chase no more, it's a very similar approach that Barcelona side of Peps used.
The thing is, we haven't had the players available to use it 100% successfully, when we have Blind back in the same side as Carrick we might just have our 3 ball playing CB's and one to step out of defense drawing opposition in and start the chasing and rotation of the ball, just now we're seemingly using risky passes to draw them out but the norm for a Van Gaal system is the CB coming out.
I was wondering how we would fit say a Strootman type midfielder in our system but if we're to have Carrick -- Blind -- Rojo as our adopted CB partnership then a Strootman would actually be perfect in front of those 3 and it offers us great composure and distribution from the back.