Return of the King

Dying in bed from abnormally high fever on Saturday, very little could lift my spirits and ignite me to move a muscle. Heck, I didnt even tweet for 12 straight hours! Until of course I noticed something fishy going on in my twitter time line (yes I was monitoring it but not tweeting). Ryan Babel  tweeted that another player, Lucas had something to tell us, he then tweeted again that maybe it was Glen Johnson who wanted to tell us this. Then tweets flooded in of an expected announcement from LFC.TV.

Its like I was touched my god himself, I got out of bed, jumped around, prayed to thank the lord and informed my followers of this glorious news. Twitter, Facebook, emails and BBM's were flooded with messages of joy an elation. Roy as you know was set to go one way or another, for the owners to ask King Kenny to come back and hold fort was special, because right now we need someone special to inspire the team to be just that, a team again. Many argued that he has been out of the game for too long and doesnt understand the pressures of the modern day game. Bull shit if you ask me, he watches the games, his been back at LFC in the backroom staff and academy for over a year so to say he has lost touch is like saying  Hugh Hefner doesnt know what brunettes are. His very first game in charge of Liverpool would be against Manchester United in the FA Cup, could it get any better than this? A revival game of note was on the cards. Now realistically speaking, a win was asking for much, most of all what we wanted was a good all round performance from our team.

Come Sunday the day of the game, I make sure I tune in, in time to see the King step out onto the field. The traveling KOP of 9000 dont disappoint in making his entrance a grand one. Then I saw him, out stepped Howard Webb, who? Acclaimed to be one of the best ref's in the world who for some reason always seems to make the most controversial decisions at Old Trafford against the traveling team. Lets hear it from the United guys now shall we. "Oh f*ck off, you guys are just useless, lame excuse, just finding other reasons besides your team" yeah okay what ever, wonder whats this then. Oh no, what did I do? I just posted facts of a number of games that Webb officiated at Old Trafford in which he made critical decisions that worked in favour of United. The FA are probably going to investigate me like they did to Rafa after he pulled out a list of facts, actual facts that showed proof that the FA favoured Alex Ferguson but lets not bring that up again as it may hurt the United clan as no one has single handedly  insulted Fergie like that before.

Didnt take long for Webb to show his love and affection to the Red of Manchester, 3 minutes in United cut well into the Liverpool defence, the slightest of touches (if any) by Daniel Agger sends Berbatov into his very own rendition of Swan Lake. Of course Webb being 20 meters or so back, blocked by 4/5 players and no indication from his linesmen could see that this was an obvious penalty. Shocked by the decision the Liverpool players have every right to argue, for me it was pretty much a normal thing for us really. Theres almost always a dubious penalty awarded to United against us, whats that I hear? this wasnt dubious or controversial? Better tell that to Skysports, BBC Sport and Goal.com. I could post other news websites but that would just be petty. Players dive, I agree but at least own up to it, I may have said during some banter to the United blokes that Torres never dives but they managed to dig up the one and only time he did lose his balance in the League and evidently it was against United at OT, but that game was wayyy back in 2008, so who's bringing up the past now ;) Back to the game, the over all shape of Liverpool was good. Kenny resorted to playing Gerrard up front behind Torres, Maxi and Kuyt on the wings with Lucas and Miereles patrolling midfield. Kenny proved I wasnt going crazy by thinking Aurellio was better than Konchesky and had him set at Left back with Konchesky not even making the team to travel to Old Trafford that day. Agger, Skertl, Kelly and Reina made up the rest of the defence. 

The team responded well to going a goal down with them creating a few good moves that could have resulted in equalising goals, unfortunately our lucky charm Vidic wasnt playing that day. Rio did well to clear many a shot and low cross that came in. Then the second of the 2 controversial decisions that Webb made in the game occurred. Free ball to be won, Gerrard and Carrick attempt to win it, I'd say Gerrard was fairly closer to it but matter of the fact is what happened next. Play was stopped after Webb felt there was no advantage to United, and after being consulted by his assistants, the United players then telling them to step away he then brandished the red card to Steven Gerrard. My view on the tackle, was it reckless? yes, malicious? no, was he making an attempt to win the ball? yes, was he wanting to damage the player? no, do I want him to damage the player? yes. The challenge warranted a stern talking to and a yellow card at most. Why just a yellow? Many say it was a 2 footed, studs up challenge, I took the liberty of getting screen grabs from the replay to show that he in fact went in with 1 foot, not two. See the back leg is in the other direction, of course once he lands the trailing leg will follow. He cant de-attach his leg. Then they say "why did he lunge?" what did they want him to do? moon walk?

It was a 50/50 but in those cases with you being in OT with Webb its seen as a 99/1 tackle. Carrick rolled around for a few seconds but was fine after that. You probably think Im being unreasonable and a bitter rival, I would post stills and videos of Rafael's stomp on Maxi or Nani's kick to Aurellio's knee but surprise, surprise none of those made the highlights nor were mentioned in any of the articles and both easily card-able offences, plus after Howard Webb gave De Jong only a yellow after his ninja kick on Alonso at the world cup final, I thought he could have been less harsh on Gerrard... oh wait Alonso was a Liverpool player, right that explains it.

Back to the game, 10 men against 12, I mean 11, we did well to hold our shape and quite honestly offered United very little space to attack with only one moment midway in the second half that made the heart skip when Reina was forced into 5/6 consecutive saves from all angles with at one stage his goal gaping open. Kenny made a double substitution which saw Maxi and Miereles depart for Babel and Shelvy. Both youngsters, both pacey and both with attacking mentality, it was clear what Kenny was thinking. They were superb, almost instantly tearing through the field, Babel firing down the left almost found Torres with his first burst, Shelvy showing his brilliance hunted down the United defender to the corner flag, and attempted to find Babel at the edge of the box but the pass was behind the arriving player. Everything we did was leaps and miles of the Liverpool we were used to seeing this season. Im not sure if it was a once of performance by certain players or if this is the Liverpool we going to see till the end of the season. Torres I must admit isnt looking himself yet but Kenny on Monday re-assured fans that they will get him back to the striker we know and love. The funny thing from after the game was the gloating by the glory hunting mancs, fine a win is a win and we are out of the competition, if it were Liverpool whom won under that circumstances I would be disappointed, besides the ref's decisions, having a team with a man short I would have liked to see my team finish them off, at 1-0 anything can happen, so it is critical to make sure of the victory. I'll just leave Uniteds failure of scoring a second down to brilliant Liverpool defence and no one can say we "parked the bus" because we did attack. It was funny reading the after match comments by the managers and players, Fergie claiming everything was fair (give me a break), Berbatov claiming he would never dive (yawn) and Kenny stating both decisions were a joke (lol).

To round of the weekend of laughs, step up Rayn Babel with his tweets. Many mock him but he is a funny yet talented guy. After tweeting "and they say he is one of the best ref's in the world smh" and posting this pic of Webb in a United kit, the FA have stepped in to punish him for such a thing, while the rest of the world laughed along with him... besides United fans of course, this shit aint funny.

Joke being doing the rounds since Sunday:


Howard Webb's kids have denied their Dad is a secret Man Utd fan."He is totally unbiased," Alex, George, Bobby, Matt and Cristiano stated.

I hope this is a signal of things to come for Liverpool as I really liked what I saw on Sunday, we played with reason again. We looked like we had tactics, plan B's, and other options apart from the boring long ball approach. Our defence looked good and had structure even with Kelly stepping in last minute for Glen Johnson. Aurellio showed he still has his set piece radar in check. So Wednesdays game away to Blackpool couldnt come sooner.

YNWA

Why do they hate us?

On Sunday the 9th of January 2011, was my mothers birthday, apart from this important occasion it also marked yet another meeting of English footballs two greats, Manchester United vs Liverpool FC (the most successful club in England) in the FA Cup. Now like you already know, my team is the red one... the real REDS, we're going through a tough patch as my previous post stated. The reason for this blog post is, on the morning of that Sunday, a good twitter friend of mine that hails from the Cape and who supports Manchester United tweeted and I quote: " I have a question... Why is it that nuetrals always support the team Man Utd is playing? "


Now, where do I start?

[please note I will refer to them as "fan" instead of "supporter", yes there is a difference]

Arrogance- Now dont get me wrong, when your team is winning left right and center, the fan has every right to be be arrogant, but some fans tend to take it to the next level. How you may ask? well for one, if things are not going right for them, the world is against them. Secondly they always have to be right, no number of facts proving otherwise is factual besides what they believe. They'll then turn to pesky name calling (fine there is a fair bit of name calling in footy but these guys just get pathetic at it) then digging up past info to hurl at you for not agreeing with them then insist you are jealous. I could go on about the arrogance level of the fan, but that would just amount to a series of paragraphs explaining the low mentality of these of people.

How do they come about? Well ever since 1999 ( the year of the Devil as some call it ) when Manchester United famously clenched the treble by beating Bayern Munich in a thrilling final which saw them win it in the dying seconds of the game, its almost as if a heavy cloud carrying thousands if not millions of United supporters burst over the earth. Littering countries (and especially ours) with these "Glory Hunters". Strong word to call someone, but thats essentially what they are, couldnt name a starting 11 if their life depended on it. Only thing that was important to them was: Fergie, Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Solskjaer and the most annoying chant you ever heard in your life "Glory Glory Man United"  *wipes away puke*. They'd get up on a Sunday morning (as most games in the league are played on Saturday) see if United have won, whip out that Jersey (real or fake) wear it with pride through out the day, pointing out to anyone that "their team won". Fine some do watch the games, they did so halfheartedly, get annoyed if they didnt see a goal being scored by their team in the ages that they've been sitting in front of the TV (15 minutes) then get excited when one of the few players they do know get the ball but confused as to why they passed it to another lesser known player on the pitch. Now as they years went on from 99, United kept a steady form going by winning the league and various other Cup competitions, so these glory hunters were fed with success, favourtie players changed from Beckham to Ronaldo but that old crock Fergie still remained, good thing too as most of them would be left baffled if he ever left or died.

"OMG! Justin Timberlake is wearing a ManU beanie, Im like sooo supporting that team"

If you ever confronted a glory hunter and told them there are that, they claim they are "passionate", right, refer to the paragraph on arrogant, theres a fine line between passion and being a dimwit. for example, shortly after the game on Sunday, a friend posted something on my facebook wall and by no instigation by myself, so after trying to explain a point a small argument followed.

click to enlargen

Now you see what I said, stubborn, arrogant and resorted to name calling. I wonder if he even read what I typed? I eventually lost hope in trying to educate him so I left it, but of course they always have to have the last say. Its the United way.

Now you see the bad thing with these glory hunters, is that them seem to infect the other true supporters of the said team with the vile they seem is right, hence we tend to get this mixture of arrogant fools all over the place now-a-days. Sure like I said they have a reason to be so but they divulging into the ways of filth that flood us.

Apart from being a supporter of Liverpool football club, I am a fan of the game, so I'll watch any football that is on, especially if its English. So it grates me when these fans of United claim to have knowledge of abundance but in actual fact know diddly squat, but as you can see from that insert, you try to explain that to them. So hence when another team thats playing United defeats them, the footballing world rejoices because most glory hunters go into hiding and we dont need to hear from them till the next time United win, not when they play because they know they are vulnerable to defeat, so its best to come out of hiding once victory is achieved, then they can come out and educate the world on the greatness that is "Sir Alex Ferguson and his team of men"

There are other points I'd like to raise but Im saving them for my next post as this one served just to answer the question that was tweeted. So look out for part 2.