Sir Alex v Benitez - League record



Pretty bleak reading for Liverpool fans, pretty awesome reading for United fans. At least Houllier could pull it off the odd time.

i don't know if i should use this emoticon or this emoticon to reply to this, so i'll just use both:

I guess thats easier than trying disprove it!

So you have another game before the derby then?

There are some things which just go past the possibility of a riposte, a lot of the time they come from your fingertips...

Anyway, bye bye Javier.

Ah, well I bought a new razor last night as I wasn't expecting much to come off this... I had a good shave. I tried to stay optimistic, but this was even worse than what I was expecting (which wasn't much ).

I think Mascherano should've hired a prostitute the night before because he was like a horny dog this game. There's passion, and then there's a little too much. Pretty uncalled for having to go all that way to the ref. Even if it was just asking... Anyway, what's done is done.. Aliadiere must be creaming his jeans now... Sweet revenge for him after all the nose poking and slappage. (that sounded gay.. that's coz their altercation was nothing less than that)

Anyway, just another routine game for United... Definitely helped out by the sending off as they hit the last nail in the coffin with the second then superglued the lid on with the third. The second one put the game beyond all doubt, and the third one was just a blow to morale and just killed it all.

Fair play to United. Gets 3 and 3 on points and goals. Good day for them.

Don't forget that "total inept" manager Keegan could get a win over Man Utd too and Sir Bobby could beat Man Utd too. Rafa is rubbish. Houllier was better I agree.

hmmm...well seems like Fergie's a$$ kissing of the ref earlier in the week went his way today...and I'm referring ONLY to the red card....UTD upped their game today and were worthy of winning due to their performance.

I don't think the 2nd yellow should have been showed to Masch...surely talking to the referee calmly is fine and should not warrant anything(I don't recall a ref. ever reversing a decision). Was it wrong for him to continuously talk to the ref? Yes...but it did not warrant a yellow card for a player who was already booked...I could see if maybe another player(non-booked) had approached the ref he would show the card...but not for it to result in a sending off.

Its very poor judgement from the referee ESPECIALLY for a game of this caliber with England's biggest rivals going at it...I think I have to agree with Crabhead...the ref. spoiled the game.

well.. i change my mind now.. i'll let it go.. for mascherano..

well.. objection..

he hardly dives in any matches.. he just tried to balance his foot to the ball..

well.. i'm very happy to have more points gap from any rivals on the second place of the table..

we should've ended the match with half a dozen goals.. but yeah.. 3-0 was already enough somehow..

i was a little bit thrilled when we had the first chance of goal.. it's a sign that we're going to score soon.. and brown answered it wth his heading before the half time..

it's a bad thing to see mascherano being sent off.. he'd been seen swearing for more than twice after the first yellow he got .. it's kind of harsh for him to earn the second yellow for nothing but attitude problem.. but what i feared came true within minutes..

then.. the other two goals were just awesome.. ronaldo deserved one as he would've scored right before the corner kick if he didn't think that he's in an offside position..

everyone's performing absolutely great.. <33

Just a couple of points ........

As I'm not a Liverpool fan , I don't see many of their games live . I see them once a year in the flesh at Goodison plus maybe half a dozen times on Sky ; so I might be getting a distorted picture but.........

I just don't see Reina as a top class keeper , he makes far too many serious mistakes . You can't consider him one of the best in the world if he produces half a dozen great saves but then "chucks one in his own net" .

He always appears suspect on crosses ; see United's first 2 goals . He often gets his angles or original starting position wrong ; see Milan's second in the CL Final . And then he makes the occasional howler ; see Bluenose's avatar .




Secondly the sending off . Very harsh I admit but I'm a little confused . How come Mascherano's dismissal killed the game , prevented Liverpool from having a fair chance , handed victory to United etc etc ............ and yet Inter's 2 sending offs had no effect on their chances and Liverpool had 2 well deserved victories , where they totally outclassed a team who were unaffected and unhindered by their loss of players .

What a match! What a Victory!

The 3-0 victory is overshadowed by the Red acrd to Mascherano. But who cares its the 3 points that we bagged and leading the title race by 5 points and that too from Chelsea!

The match was complately locked in the midfield at the begining with Scholes dominating no Driving the midfield all the way. Carragher deserved a red card for tackling wrong on Rooney in the box when he was one on one with Reina which was a clear goal scoring chance Rooney stood on his feet and Carragher got away with that. The 2 footed tacke on Scholes by Mascherano deserved a yellow card and about the second yellow when you run half way ground just to argue with ref about the card to your fellow team mate then you need to be prepared to get one more. Not only that but after Mascherano tackle on Scholes he had many fouls on United players and ref was noting that as well. In all I think it wasnt his word but his deeds made him to leave the ground.

Brown goal was very good and that was a result of sloopy defending and nervous goalkeeping by Reina.

Liverpool defence was poor yesterday NO i dont think so United made them to look poor. Gerrald was sleeping yesterday and I didnt understand is he the same captain who led Liverpool to glory of UCL. He was pathetic yesterday.

Rafa shud understood the Kyut real position and he shud play him in that. Babel shudnt have been playing yesterday rather Rafa shud have opted for Pennant. Evra had a very easy game to keep away Kyut who is very confused with his play.

In the end it was icing on the cake by Ronaldo and Nani the 2 Portugese Winger. Nani goal was absolutely fantastic.

Torres was batteling against 2 jiant defenders but he failed because football is not one man game its team game. Torres havent got a single quality ball from the midfield and i take Gerrald responsible for that.

Disappointing to say the least. Mascherano should hang his head in shame for not thinking about the team first and foremost above anything else.

Great post mate... But believe me, that excuse will extend into the derby as well if we win it "guaranteed" for sure.

Correct.

I watched the whole game again to soak it all in and I don't know how anyone can see any other outcome from Mascherano's actions. He was sarcastically clapping the referee's decisions, barking in his face, smirkily making comments and laughing at the referee. I really don't know how he thought that he would achieve other than a second yellow....

But hey, at least he was showing a bit of passion which seemed out of the rest of your teams reach to be honest.

I like your avatar....

He just did what ever other referee does at Old Trafford.

Forget Mascherano, he was an idiot and his first outburst and tackle was over the top but still wouldn't have met with a yellow had he had a United shirt on, the second was a nothing incident but he should have known that Bennet was a tit by then. As I say though forget that.

Forget Torres getting kicked, he received the treatment any good player would get and if we were kicking Rooney no one would be saying a damn thing. Skrtel is looking like a great find but he has had a baptism of fire this Season and finally I thought Babel looked threatening when he got the ball.

Forget all your excuses, your idea of money being the reason we can't compete and most of all forget the media.

Torres ran his heart out yesterday and was the main reason I was still proud to support Liverpool on a day where all we got was embarrasment and lack of passion.

Torres believe in his manager, he believes in his instructions and he believes in the team.

You now have two options, you either keep Torres and Mascherano and get rid of Carragher and Gerrard or you jib the Manager off and get someone who can make these lads believe, and it's as simple as that.

There was a comment on here that Carragher and Gerrard were not happy with Benitez and while a few very good performances against lacklustre opposition hid that for a while, when the chips were down it was blatent who was playing and who wasn't.

I am not for a minute suggesting that Gerrard and Carragher rolled over to prove a point, what I am saying is that two of the most passionate players this club has ever had showed us NOTHING.

Carragher since he has been moved has lost that fire to his game and I refuse to put it down to the fact he can't play anymore. You don't lose your ability that quickly, it doesn't happen.

Gerrard has all the ability in the world but at no time did he believe he was in a team that could beat United. He strolled round that pitch which his shoulders shrugged and his head down and while Mascherano stupidly but passionately was doing the captain's job of actually standing up for the team, Gerrard was doing NOTHING.

Player for player we are not that far away from United quality wise and I don't care what anyone says. In fact player for player we are a match for any side in Europe, the spine of our side is one of the strongest in european football.

We could have had Kaka, Benzema, Quaresma, you name them and it wouldn't have mattered worth a shite yesterday.

No fire, no passion, no belief, no points.

Rafa Benitez once went to Old Trafford to learn from Ferguson, it is a big reason the two are friends.

I am reminded of the quote "I taught you everything you know but not everything I know." While United were playing for their fans and their manager in a disciplined and exciting way ours were left to be schooled once again by a man who it seems is all but inside Rafa's head.

I said before this game that this was our best chance to get something from United and maybe even beat them in many a year, I was looking at the players though, not the manager, that was my mistake. We are on that showing further away from United than we have EVER been under Benitez.

Well, I've seen the game yesterday. I went to a pub, set at the same place, where I was seating at the 16th of December. I was a bit nervous actually, if to be honest I was a bit afraid of Liverpool. I respect this team very much, and although the game was at the Old Trafford, I wasn't too optimistic. But my fears were needless, MU has done Liverpool very good... Not without help of Mascerano, of course. Torres was booked, but Mascerano went to fight with Bennett... He spoke too much.
Anyway, the game was good, but a little bit boring in the first half... And MU has lost some moments, although Pepe Reina was too uncertain. Of course, Brown took me by surprise And then Ronaldo, who scored his first goal to Liverpool... I'm happy

Has the penny finally dropped, Liverpool fans??? That your team is simply not good enough to win the premiership??? At the start of every season we keep hearing how Liverpool will mount a serious title challenge, but year in year out they fail to deliver. Underachievers big time. Bottlers. Like I (and several others) said in Bluenose' "The Top Three" thread a while ago, leave the title chase to the Man Utd's, Arsenal's and Chelsea's of this world. The REAL big boys. From now on, I will refuse to consider Liverpool as genuine title challengers until I actually see it.

Man Utd simply outclassed Liverpool - I can't add much more to what has already been said in all fairness. I do have one point to make though, about the Mascherano red card in particular...WHERE WAS THE CAPTAIN??!!! Seriously, it's bad enough to see "world class" Stevie G regularly disappearing in these types of matches, but he should have at least been right in there to stop Mascherano confronting the ref; and after the red card was issued, he should have led him off the pitch to restore some order. Instead he was nowhere to be seen! Total lack of leadership and responsibilty.

The biggest blame must laid at Mascherano though. As someone said earlier in this thread, it was almost like he was trying to get himself sent off. Torres was unlucky to get booked, I must admit, but that doesn't excuse Mascherano running 20 yards to talk to the ref, pushing away Xabi Alonso in the process. It was a small straw, but it the final straw which broke the camel's back. He was walking a very thin tightrope before the incident: he made a bad challenge on Scholes, mouthed off after getting the yellow card (clearly telling Bennett to fcuk off, twice), committed a couple more fouls (after the first one he again tells Bennett to fcuk off, twice again!) and finally the red card after running 20 yards to argue. I don't like Steve Bennett because he's one of those referees you can't talk to and he has an air of arrogance about him, but this is totally Mascherano's fault. Benitez's reaction said it all - he knew his player lost control.

I don't think it would have changed anything to be honest. Up to then, Man Utd were already winning 1-0 and created at least three other good chances to score - they were penetrating Liverpool's defence regularly enough anyway.

Man Utd will go on to win the title whilst Liverpool yet again are looking at Champions' League glory to salvage another poor domestic season. Some things don't change.