So Manchester United remain 7 points clear of the chasing pack, with a competent, if not wholly inspiring, 2-1 win over the bitter rivals Liverpool. This was actually a pretty interesting game. The league leaders were superior in the first half, taking the lead through yet another sublimely cool finish from Robin van Persie, who is emerging as the Player of the Season so far. Liverpool were not helped by some strange tactical decisions from Brendon Rodgers; such as deploying Joe Allen as the farthest forward of their central midfield trio to mark Michael Carrick?! In the first place, Allen is more of a ball distributor and not a man-marker; and secondly, he is not as effective as Gerrard in the final attacking third of the field. Steven Gerrard was also conspicuously inconspicuous in this game, as was Raheem Sterling.
United went 2-0 up in the second half through Vidic's nose. It will probably be credited to the United skipper; however, it was Evra who made the decisive header towards goal. Just when it seemed United were comfortably out of reach, in came substitute Daniel Sturridge to blaze Liverpool back into the picture. Suddenly, United seemed to enter semi-paranoia mode, as their clearances started looking desperate and their body language nervous. Liverpool had a few more chances to equalise, notably when Sturridge again had a decent opening on his weaker right foot, but unfortunately blazed over.
Overall, United just about deserved their win in the latest installment of this spectacular rivalry. This certainly wasn't the most fiery of matches between these two sides; in fact, I would consider it quite mild actually. Luis Suarez tried his best for Liverpool, but he was lacking offensive support upfront till Sturridge came onboard. Liverpool can at least take heart that they did rattle the league leaders to some extent, and their recent good form points to a bright second half of the season for them. On this day, however, it just wasn't enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment