Kenny Gets His Dirk Out As Mancs Flop

What a game, what a performance.

There can be no doubts at all as to the result, quite simply the best team won, not only did the best team win, they did it in superb fashion and made their opponents look rather ordinary.

The team of course was Liverpool, and the victory is one that will live long in the memories of supporters around the world. There was not one aspect of the performance that we would change, even the goal, lets be honest, if we had a choice at the start of the game for 3-1 we would all have taken it in a heartbeat, and whilst after the game we can be quite certain that the consolation was not deserved, it takes nothing away from our performance and if anything flatters our opponents - who quite simply weren't good enough.

Lets get the main talking points out of the way with first. The rough end to the first half. Should Jamie have walked for what he did, of course he should, whilst i do not think for a second that there was any real intent to hurt Nani, he was late and he was high, and i think Jamie himself would admit that there are plenty of refs out there who would not have been so lenient. The reaction of Nani to the challenge was ridiculous, and I'm not talking about the crying - that was pathetic - I'm talking about the way he got up, chased after the referee, complained about the damage to his leg and then collapsed in a heap after that sniper took him out. I mean, come on, what is that all about really? He could not have been hurt even half as bad as has been made out if he was able to get up and run, all it was, was a clear attempt to try to get the referee to send Carra off. Carra was fortunate not to walk.

Then moments later there is Rafael, now Maxi did go in on him a bit, probably could have got a yellow for it, but it was only a graze, wasn't enough to bring the player down or cause him to lose the ball, Rafael's own heavy touch presented the ball on a plate to Lucas, his response to go in with studs up, two footed and airborne was well worth a red, if Lucas hadn't been wise to it he could well have ended up with a broken leg or two and be forced to miss the rest of the season. Absolutely shocking play from the Utd defender. But, i have to say, i never expected Dowd to send him off, all we ask from refs is consistency, and that's what we got from Dowd, he never sent Carra off for a single footed but late lunge on Nani, so i don't think he was ever going to send Rafael off for two footed lunge when no contact was made - even though the intent was there and it was very dangerous play.

You could argue that Dowd was consistently poor, but the fact is he was consistent and neither side or their supporters should have any real cause for complaint on this.

Interesting too, how all the fuss has been about Carra's challenge and there has been very little mention of Rafael's at all in the media, but then again that shouldn't surprise us now, should it?

And perhaps if players had to wear proper shin pads and not the small lightweight things that they seem to wear then Nani would not have been hurt as he was - just a thought.

Something which bothered me in the build up to the game, and more so afterwards, was all the talk about this depleted Utd side. Hardly a day, never mind a week goes by when we are not reminded of Utd's strength in depth, how their bench is the envy of teams across Europe and how they can cope with even the most numerous and long term of absences. That's a load of rubbish really. Take out Vidic, and the defence is useless, and we all know that the team is made up primarily of players who are distinctly average - Carrick, Fletcher, Brown, O'Shea, Smalling, Rafael (both of them) to name a few. And really with the exception of Hernandez they don't have any youngsters coming through who have the footballing world looking forward to their progression to the big stage. Giggs and Scholes are best there best and Van Der Sar is calling it quits at the end of the season. Fergie may have conquered the 90's unopposed by building up a young attacking side, but they're all old men now and he simply has been unable to replicate the success in bringing youngsters through that he achieved in the early to mid 90's. This is undoubtedly the worst Utd side in recent history and one that will surely come undone in the near future, the signs are there - but what baffles is how they have cruised through the league an cup competitions this season with relative ease despite being so poor, but that's life i suppose.

Now Dirk will get the plaudits for his hat trick and rightly so, it's not every day that a player scores a hat trick against Utd and certainly not every day that a player scores his first hat trick for his club against Utd. All i can say Dirk is that you certainly picked a good time to bag your first hat trick mate! Take nothing away from him, for the first it was a gift, and he did what all good strikers should do, he made certain of the goal, he doesn't know who's behind him, and the ball hasn't crossed the line, there is a chance, however slim, that the goal could be prevented, but he made sure and that was vital. The second, again probably a gift, this time from Utd but he was in an advanced position and was alert and able to take advantage of the complete hash of a clearance from Nani, easy finish but again a vital one. And for the third he was the only player alive to the possibility that if the keeper saves it or it hits the post that there is a chance of a rebound, and his awareness of this is key, he gets there first, he pokes home in front of the Kop and he pretty much wraps up the game.

The only other player I'm going to give a mention too in any great detail is Luis Suarez. What an amazing game he had, there aren't many players out there who can say that they single handedly made the Utd defence look like complete fools, now it has been said that they stood off an let him through, not wanting to give away a penalty blah blah, the media can say what they want, the truth is that they simply couldn't bring him down and not through lack of trying - superb piece of skill. But throughout the whole game, he was everywhere, he never stopped, his work rate was immense and long may it continue, his passing, vision, determination, he is already half way there to becoming a reds legend, and i can guarantee that no one will ever forget what he did to the Utd defence in the build up to the first goal.

It was however a team performance and there was not a single player on the pitch who did not have an excellent game but to name them all and roll off there achievements and contributions to the victory would take me all day and i don't think people would stick around for a post of that size! But like i said, everyone was superb.

The King even got his own Birthday song, something which I'm sure went down a treat with the visitors, its one thing to be humiliated on the field, but another for the humiliation to be compounded from the stands, pure quality. And if that wasn't enough, with a three goal lead against Utd most teams would be bringing on a few extra CB's but we bring on a huge CF!! Love it.

The best thing for on the day though, was that our most unwelcome guests from the other end of the motorway had to stay and watch til the very end, not like the hiding we gave them at their place a few seasons back when there was hardly a sole to be seen apart from the travelling supporters come the 80th minute. There was no early escape, the torture must have been unbearable, well, i certainly hope it was!

And as for the 'Media Blackout' hahaha can't it last forever, please??? It just shows how classless and undignified the club is, it takes nothing to come out and say we were beaten by the better team, the whole world knows it. And the suggestion that win, lose or draw there would be a media silence on their part is ridiculous, you cant tell me that if they had just given us a hiding like we gave them that Fergie wouldn't have been out for a gloat in front of the media. The whole thing is ridiculous and it is about time that the BBC and SKY reported the club and the manager for failing to fulfill one of the requirements as part of the league's relationship with the media, they don't pay millions for silence, although to be honest i wouldn't mind if Fergie never gave an interview again, he's clueless, classless, arrogant, and self righteous and its about time he retired to be honest - Fergie, the media still call it 'our perch' for a reason.

Last time i said performances must improve and my how it did, so lets have more of the same please, an concentrate on winning games with all the style and brilliance with which we beat UTD. If we can do this, and transfer it into the Europa campaign - well - this season might not end too badly after all!!

Hammer Blow To The Reds

Right, so I've waited a while to sit back and let the dust settle before i got round to this. I've been saying for some weeks now that a 4th place finish was not going to happen, sure it mathematically possible - still is - but after the nightmare we had before Christmas we should be happy to take a 5/6th place finish and it is down to Kenny Dalglish and the way he has turned the club around that we were actually realistically aiming for 4th, but now it is more of a wild dream.

Firstly, Sundays game. Credit to West Ham for playing better than they normally do, but that was it, they played better, they never played the greatest game of football you will ever see, Scott Parker did not turn into Messi overnight although the way the commentators carried on you could be forgiven for thinking so - he did what he tends to do for West Ham, he gave them everything, it's not like we haven't seen him do it before, not like we won't see him do it again. West Ham Played well, Liverpool played bad, the result, we made them look better, whilst that in turn made us look worse then what we are. West Ham deserved the victory. There were still too many elements of their game that would have been vastly exploited by stronger more determined opposition - Liverpool were neither on the day. The attitude they displayed will give them  great chance of staying in the league but there are no guarantees.

As for Liverpool, well, the defeat was coming, no two ways about that. Following on from the victory at Chelsea performances have gone downhill, against Wigan we could have ended up losing, not the greatest display ever, then over two legs against Prague we gave the kind of displays that would have seen most of the premier league beat us with little effort, we didn't look up for it or interested and we got through only due to Prague's own lack of ambition and poor performances and it all led into the game against the Hammers. Have to say i didn't think it would be an easy game, the relegation battlers are never going to role over an take a hiding, but - i did think we would win, and, i thought this because following on from 3 poor showings i thought the team would recognise that a game against West Ham would be a good place to restore belief and get 3 points - didn't exactly go to plan.

The loss of Martin Kelly is a big one, no doubts about that. We all knew he had 'potential' but he never really got a proper chance until Dalglish threw him in against Utd and he quickly established himself as first choice right back for the club, ahead of England's own first choice right back, Glen Johnson, and that is something that deserves credit. What it does give us in terms of positives is an interesting dilemma. Who plays right back, and who plays left back, the obvious choice would be Johnson right back, Aurelio left back, or Johnson could stay left back, Carragher at right back, with the central positions being occupied by any of Agger, Soto or Skrtel. What i think will happen is a bit different. I think that Johnson will shift to right back, and Danny Wilson will take the left back role.

Now, there were a few who were quick to jump in and give Wilson criticism on Sunday, unfairly. He gave us two good, solid displays in the Europa League and he kept his place in the team on merit, he deserved it. Secondly it was a poor performance from the team all round, the midfield battle was non existent and as a result the defence came under increased pressure, and quite often he was left with no cover with Johnson playing more advanced he wasn't always eager to get back and help, which left Wilson exposed. He is only young and he will learn but he is not a bad defender by any definition. He has played numerous times for Rangers in the SPL and has also made Champions League appearances too. Now there are not many 19year old defenders who could claim to have done that. The criticism is premature and unjustified, had we decided to play as good as we can and controlled the midfield properly the defence would have been able to operate under less pressure, the team would have performed better and confidence would have improved all round, especially for a player making his first Premier League appearance and most of that spent at left back when he is predominantly a centre back - same as with Kelly on the right.

I've had a lot to say about Glen Johnson recently, still maintain that he is pretty much an average defender, nothing special at all, but in attacking positions he seems to come alive, and he is a real threat. Against West Ham he had (initially) more of an attacking role and he proved what i and other have been saying - he is a much better attacking winger than he is a defender and to be fair to him he had a good game, a full game in that attacking role would have reaped more positives but injuries and the resultant re-shaping can not be helped, although he did get the goal that on the balance of it his performance deserved. Lets hope he gets another crack in that more advanced role, would love to see him playing there more regular.

We were all annoyed at the defeat and there has been a lot of talk of 'perspective' since. One defeat in nine we are told, something to be pleased about - of course it is. On January first if you had given any Liverpool supporter the choice to be going into the Utd game on the back of a 9 game run that involved 5 wins, 3 draws and a solitary defeat i think they would have bitten your hand off, or laughed thinking it was a joke - lets be honest on January 1st it didn't exactly look likely to happen did it? But talk like this ignores the real perspective and that is that recently performances have been lacking and have gone downhill since the victory at Chelsea and if we are not careful and do not address this problem quickly we could fall out of contention for a Europa League place never mind 4th place - which we are pretty much out of.

In terms of performances we are not as fortunate as our next opponents who have been well off the boil this season yet are quite comfortably walking away with the title. The game against ManUtd is a big one, and form doesn't tend to count for much and as is always the case, the easiest thing to do is win the game, what we do after it is the hard part. A good performance and a good result will be meaningless if we do not follow it up. Earlier in the season we played Chelsea, we stepped it up, we won, and then results dipped afterwards, there was no springboard, again we have played Chelsea and results have dipped, we can not afford the same thing to happen after Sundays game.

We have 10 games left, 30points to play for, we really should be aiming to finish on a high, the target should be maximum points, realistically i would say that 24 would be acceptable, finishing with a total of 63 points which would have to guarantee us a top 6 finish and if all goes our way, Europa League football next season. In the League we have only personal pride left to play for this season, all we can do is finish as strongly as possible, but with games against Arsenal, Utd, City and Spurs all to come we might have some influence on the final positions of those above us.

For me though, our main target must now be the Europa League, we have a good chance of winning it too. I know a lot of people regard it as a second rate trophy that no one wants but after we had endured a rather barren and unsuccessfully uneventful period just over a decade ago, winning the UEFA cup in 2001 was seen as a huge triumph, and it would be a great boost to the club to claim the trophy especially as we haven't welcomed any silver wear home since 2006. And it would be a great way to cap off a season that started so badly, and looked to be getting worse only for the return of Kenny Dalglish. Wouldn't be bad either to start this decade as we did the last, although i wouldn't want another 5-4 final!

Bottom line though is that performances have to improve, if the team doesn't perform well, we don't get results, like i said, we are not ManUtd, we can not play poorly yet win every week as they do and the biggest mystery of this season is how they have actually managed to do it with what many regard as the worst Utd team in recent history.

Lets make Sunday a game they will wanna forget for years, just like that 1-4 at Old Trafford only this time the goblins can't leave after 80mins, their locked in til the very end.

Performances must improve.