It was a huge match on Sunday when Manchester United came to face Liverpool at Anfield.  If Liverpool won they could save their season, if they lost it would end their title challenge very early in the running.

The most noticeable absentee was the injured Steven Gerrard, and it looked like it could be a difficult game for Liverpool without their iconic skipper.  But as soon as the first ball was kicked it was clear that Liverpool were well up for the match.

As you are probably well aware Liverpool ended up winning 2-0 and I won’t go into a detailed match report here, but rather pick out a few things that bothered me.

I think it was a big mistake for Ferguson to play Scholes in the midfield.  Scholes is a Manchester United legend, and will always have a place in the heart of the fans, but it’s just the nature of live that players get older and lose their edge.  For me ever since last season Scholes has been on a down hill slope, at this point he rarely has a good game.  Against Liverpool he got caught on the ball many times and just didn’t seem able to keep up with the play.  My biggest surprise was that the normally astute Ferguson did not pick up on this and substitute him out for Anderson or Nani at half time.

Another issue which has started to bother me a lot for the last few matches is Berbatov and his increasingly poor attitude.  At this point you see him complaining and have a go at other players whenever Berbatov misplaces a pass or doesn’t get the ball he wants; and not in a constructive way, but more of a blame game.  I’m shocked Ferguson has let him get away with it, as his performances just don’t warrant any special treatment.  I he doesn’t get his head right Ferguson needs to teach him a lesson and let Machada and Wellbeck have a chance at starting matches.

On a plus side the defense looks a lot stronger with Van Der Saar in the net; with Ben Foster playing I’m sure the score could have been 4 or 5.

Liverpool played very well, and I have to take my hat off to them with the likes of Lucas and Carragher really playing brilliantly after being criticized for recent poor performances.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Matches, Player Focus, Team Focus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.