If anything that would be worse for Benitiez. He seems to always put his head in the sand when there is a poor performance such as this one, so for him to be allowed an excuse sugar coats another bad outing against one of the top teams. It is obvious to all we need to improve. I like your point regarding how poor our record is Vs United under Rafa. We always take a cautious approach. Why not, as you said, go for the win. I thought that was what we were going to do in the first 6 mins, lol, then the inevitable happened.



Even though they had not put us under too much pressure i think that was going to be the obvious outcome in the end.

Do you mean the Torres foul on Vidic?

That's the only one i can remember. But that was nothing. It wasn't a good tackle, he didn't get the ball, but it certainly wasn't worthy of a second yellow. Not even close. It was the sort of tackle you see in EVERY game. To get sent off for it was a joke.

But maybe i missed a foul and that's the one you're talking about.

So this is how Liverpool fans saw the events last Sunday

very good forev.

bennett was a loser

i would too if iseen aurelio and kuyt in my team

well no wonder you are not a footballer then. What an awful attitude to have. It is not those players fault that perhaps they are not good enough or being played out of position. Aurelio was our best player against United as well. Hardly fair to use them as an excuse for Gerrards bad performance.

Please dont tell me what I do or do not think, thanks awfully

If my post is the same old drivel then why read it? Oh right, its so you can spew out the same old smartass comments to try and look "cool" Unlucky, you failed

As for blaming the ref for the display, please show me. I said it may have been a different ball game had Javier stayed on the pitch

I read it because I want to see how myopic Liverpool fans like you really are.

You want me to show you where you was blaming the ref? Sure! Right here, son:

Oh johaldo

I blamed the ref for ruining the game and any chance we may have had. I can understand you reading what you wanna read there & thats just super cool for you but I know what I meant, you read it in a different context.

I'll sit here and wait for you to reply with another smartarse comment.

-waits-

No, that's fine by me.

I (and most Liverpool fans) blame Mascherano, but you choose to blame Bennett. I can't force you to change your mind so we'll leave it there.

I've said all I wanted to say on this game now so I'm done

check out our amazing fans! do not think many fans would be like this after a big defeat!

http://www.divshare.com/download/4113500-0f3

hope it works, enjoy!

dont work....

are they assembling in huge masses in a stand ill equipped to deal with the people stampeding the turnstiles?

thieving tickets from fellow fans, including children?

murdering foreign fans?

blocking an ambulance containing a person with a horrifically broken leg?

introducing the viewer to their mate 'stanley'?

or all of the above?

hmmmmmmmm, not in this piece of footage no, chose to ignore that. Feel free to dig through youtube though, no doubt be something there that ticks those boxes.

It is a clip of an empty Old Trafford apart from the Liverpool fans who have been kept behind. They are singing the Torres song. It is quality!

Sounds good. Might ask to get a half day from work so I can go home and watch it

so they are singing a song while being forced to stay behind after the game?

greatest fans on earth

fair enough.

I never said they were the best fans on earth, just a quality clip considering we had just lost 3-0 in a massive match. The whole crowd is buzzing, its a good clip. Its up to you if you watch it or not if the link works.

just you try and stop me

I don't know what other context you can read that in, you are blaming Bennett for Mascheranos short comings and an inept Liverpool performance.

You are right on the inept performance part. I could go well into just how [beep!] we were but I won't bother.

You are miles off on the Mascherano incident though.

Referees have been getting abuse far worse than what Mascherano handed out game in game out for years now. Mascherano was clearly used as a scapegoat for Cole incident and Bennett is a notorious home pleasing ref as it is! Before the game even kicked off I said that he would have a massive say in the game. Now alright I was expecting Liverpool to turn up so it would have been more significant to the result but I was right all the same.

The first tackle is a booking plain and simple but then there were countless challenges the mancs got away with that should also have been bookings.

They blatently (and cleverly) took it in turns to kick Torres and when Torres had finally had his fill and had the temerity to complain he was getting fouled time after time and nothing was being done he was shown a yellow for "dissent".

Mascherano being a passionate lad (remember what that is Steven?) ran over in amazement to ask just what was going on, see he wasn't used to the ridiculous United referee control that has taken place over the last 15 years and thought that he might get some kind of answer as to why Torres was being booked for having the [beep!] kicked out of him. Clearly all he says is what's happening. There is no threatening gesture, there is no intent to cause trouble, the lad is simply like we all were in a state of shock.

Andy Gray was spot on in what he said. Bennett could not control the game and was at the beck and call of the crowd.

Mascherano's FA Charge is just. Though I loved seeing the fire he had after being sent off, once you are sent off you leave the field, it's that simple. If you don't you expect to be bollocked by the FA, that is fair enough.

Of course if this were a fair and honest FA they would admit that Bennett failed to control the game and was the catalyst for the whole thing in the first place.

I am not going to sit here and say Mascherano is a saint, he clearly isn't. I've watched him countless number of times walk the tightrope in a much more serious way than anything he did at Old Trafford. The fact remains though that in big games you will see this kind of emotion and a sensible ref will allow the game to be played, stop it when there are clear fouls only (50/50 then sound players taking it in turns to cynically kick the [beep!] out of Torres? not on!) and only send people off when they have to.

The biggest mistake Mascherano made was he didn't gather in a pack and chase the [beep!] round the pitch ala United and Keane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SVnSjEzRqs

Oh and Redknapp is a Little Johnny.

The Mascherano and Cole incidents were totally unrelated in the eyes of two totally different and independant referees. Referees are only human and they do make mistakes or fail to see incidents clearly in what is a very fast moving game. In the case of the Cole incident, referee Riley has admitted that he didn't get a clear view of the incident and having seen the replays afterwards admitted he would have given a straight red card for the Cole tackle. He was extremely lenient with Cole regarding the dissent that followed, but having said that, he deemed that a yellow card was sufficient punishment for the incident. Subsequent to that, Riley has been removed from the Premiereship referees list as punishment for being too lenient with Cole. I believe that decision to be extremely unfair on Riley.

With regard to Mascherano, I believe that Bennett refereed the match well and was spot on with his decisions, even not awarding Man U a penalty for the tackle on Rooney, nor for giving a second yellow to Torres for a late tackle on Vidic.

I repeat, referees are only human and make mistakes, just like players make MANY mistakes throughout the game. Was it Shankly that said to his players that they would make far more mistakes throughout the game than the ref would? The rules can only be used as a guide to these fallible humans in a fast moving game where MANY decisions are borderline and could be interpreted in the favour of either side. On Grand Slam Sunday, there were a few borderline decisions and some where the referee was given no choice. Bennnet was given no choice by Mascherano other than to send him off. Don't blame Bennet, blame Mascherano for his stupidity.

I believe that Andy Gray has already gone some way to admitting that he just might have been wrong with his initial view on the Mascherano incident.

Roo-nani-aldo