Dan Rimmer's Reds Blog

Post #11 - Barclays Premier League Review - Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool

Liverpool's trip to Old Trafford was the second of three consecutive away Premier League matches, having beaten Southampton and a visit to South Wales to play Cardiff City to look forward to. Another great game for the Reds and a very comfortable one too, in all areas of the field. There was just one change to the side that won 3-0 on the South Coast two weeks ago, as Raheem's 'Sterling' performances against Southampton and for England against Denmark had earned him his place in the Starting XI, replacing Philippe Coutinho. 

There wasn't that much between the two sides and it was a rather flat first 20 minutes for the forwards of both United and Liverpool, with the ball stuck in the midfield.

It turned into a rather feisty encounter however as Jon Flanagan, with all of his desire to win the ball in 50/50 challenges, earned him as well as Manchester United's Rafael a yellow card after several challenges that referee Mark Clattenburg had totted up.

The referee himself had an extremely busy afternoon, that started when he gave Liverpool a penalty through a handball from Rafael after Luis Suarez controlled a ball beautifully from a switch of play by Daniel Sturridge and was about to drive past the full back. Perhaps a sense of déjà vu as Steven Gerrard readied himself, as he did to seal a victory against Southampton a fortnight ago, and in the 34th minute the skipper placed the ball into the bottom right hand corner to make it 1-0 to his side. The Red Devils tried to force a response before the break and made Simon Mignolet make a great save from a lively Wayne Rooney, while the goalscorer in Gerrard was also forced into a yellow card before hand. 

I and many other Liverpool fans would have loved the sarcastic banner held up by the away supporters at the Theatre of Dreams that read "David Moyes is a football genius", and it seemed as if the banner was going to ring true again as the Reds were in pole position to take another three points from Manchester United.

The second half was barely a 60 seconds old when Joe Allen was blatantly pushed over by Phil Jones, as Clattenburg was forced into awarding the visitors their second penalty of the match. Again, it was the inevitable outcome that was a Gerrard goal in the 46th minute to give his side a 2-0 lead, as the captain repeated his celebration of a penalty in their 4-1 win in 2009 by kissing the nearby camera. I would be wrong to say that United really gave Mignolet and his back four a lot of work to do after Liverpool's second goal, which is a great credit to the defence, as Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney often found themselves in offside positions and firing shots over the bar, while Adnan Januzaj's pace did however at times give the Redmen something to think about.

However it was Liverpool who continued to dominate, and perhaps would have got a third or fourth goal had Suarez had managed to find Sturridge instead of managing to find the goal on a few occasions. 

Raheem Sterling was taken off by Brendan Rodgers, who despite holding a 2-0 lead was the first of the two managers to make a sub, as Brazillian Philippe Coutinho entered the field of play. There were a lot of penalty shouts by many managers and players across the country in Saturday's round of Barclays Premier League matches, however none were given. But somehow we ended up with three penalties in one match in this fixture as Nemanja Vidic saw his last game against Liverpool cut short after he was given his marching orders by the referee after a rather soft and potentially non-existent challenge on Sturridge. That was to be the Serbians fourth and final red card shown to him against the Merseysiders, as Gerrard stepped up to the penalty spot in an attempt to bag himself a hat trick in front of the travelling Kopites. Unfortunately he failed to convert after he was denied by the post, which meant that the score was kept at 2-0. The skipper said after the game that he was "happy to get the two goals" but admitted that he was "a little cocky" as he approached the ball for the third penalty. The failure to score a third was short-lived however as Suarez finally managed to score against the Manchester side in the 84th minute to make it 3-0 and rounded off a wonderful afternoon in style.

The Uruguayan's specially knitted boots clustered up a lovely finish after he took advantage of a blocked shot from Sturridge that ended up in a wonderful and inviting position to stroke the ball into the corner. The Reds' five year wait for an Old Trafford victory ended as the home side were left humiliated and their supporters out-sung by the loud and proud Liverpool fans. 

It wasn't a bad weekend overall, despite Manchester City and eventually Arsenal managing to collect three points at Hull and Tottenham respectively. But a shock defeat for Chelsea at the hands of Aston Villa on Saturday evening meant the Reds retained their second place position in the table and leaving themselves just four points short of and a game in hand over the West London side.

Next up for Liverpool is Cardiff City, and another away challenge awaiting for us in South Wales in the 3pm Kick Off on Saturday, and I will leave you after an unforgettable afternoon with the Northern Irish manager's comments in the Post Match Press Conference.

"We will just focus on our next game, that's Cardiff. I'm only focusing on our next game and looking to get three points. All the teams will drop points; we may well drop points, we may not. I can only look at our next game, I've done that since I've walked in the door. I'm not going to change now."