Written by KP
Liverpool produced their best all round performance of the season with enough flare and potency to end up more than deserved winners with Luis Suarez turning in a performance that had fans purring after his genius made a stunning first goal for Dirk Kuyt. Suarez showed a surety of touch and an ability to hold the ball up, which gave the Liverpool midfielder’s time to provide both he and Durk Kuyt support.
Man United surprisingly started with both Berbatov and Rooney up top, rather than Fergusson’s usual preference of Rooney on his own with a five man midfield in behind providing support. With Scholes and Carrick in the middle it was a less than formidable pairing up against Gerrard, Lucas and Meireles who had the responsibility to break from midfield to support the attack.
Liverpool started the game pressing high up the pitch and it was this pressure along with beautiful interchange passing that provided early opportunities for Suarez arriving on the end of a Meireles cross and a long range Lucas volley. But for all Liverpool’s early possession it was Man United who came closest to taking the lead with Berbatov unleashing a spectacular outside of the boot volley from a Rooney knock down which swerved in late to hit the outside of the post. Not to be disheartened, Liverpool kept pressing forward and were finally rewarded on 34 minutes.
Suarez, with what has already become his trademark, turned sharply in the area and proceeded to slalom past three defenders before poking the ball towards goal where Kuyt finished the job. Five minutes after a Luis Suarez cross, Nani’s defensive header arrowed back towards his goal where the lurking Kuyt grabbed his and Liverpool’s second. Two flash points before end of the half could easily have seen both Carragher and United’s Rafael da Silva for reckless tackles.
Liverpool’s third came after a period of United pressure where Meireles, not for the first time saved an effort of the line. From a Suarez free-kick, the ever alert Kuyt showed his predatory instinct was still intact to fasten on to the rebound from Edwin van der Sar and virtually extinguish any hopes United still harbored. The disappointment of Hernandez scoring towards the end of the game could not take away the fact that the victory was earned not just through intensity, but having a more incisive cutting edge in attack which was probably down to Suarez and the support he received from excellent Kuyt and Meireles. Gerrard played within himself, in a more withdrawn role, although that didn’t stop him coming close with two superb drives at the Kop End. The defensive unit with Maxi and Lucas in tandem, worked well to subdue United’s attacking threat.
With the future in mind, what is noticeable is the depth on the Liverpool bench. Suddenly, Meireles leaves the paddock and is replaced by Andy Carroll and Suarez is replaced by Joe Cole. And we still have Ngog, Spearing and Poulson as unused subsitutes. Two-nil down and bringing on Andy Carroll to tower over the Man United defence to win his first header cannot help but demoralise the opposition. Good teams have quality benches and Dalglish is slowly re-building a squad capable of challenging the top five.
King Kenny received a resounded verse of happy birthday wishes from the Liverpool crowd which he signaled acknowledgement. Happy Birthday to a great player, a great manager, but more importantly a great man.
I agree with you assessment, I thought we were compact and fought for every ball, Saurez is such a joy to watch, his control in very tight situations is amazing and Meireles is my favourite Liverpool player in this campaign and though he is still getting used to the speed of the English league, his movement off the ball is brilliant, always allowing him to pop up in very dangerous positions. Lucas is coming into his own and along with Dirk, have shown that commitment to a cause is just as important as talent. As King Kenny would say, the players at LFC are the players that want to be there and they showed that today
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic team performance especially from the hat-trick hero Dirk Kuyt and his strike partner Luis Suarez whose dazzling feet have won over the LFC fans in such a short space of time.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to most probably just miss out on the 4th place spot but are now setting a standard for where we should be for next season - with a better manager and a better squad with a few additions in the summer.
What a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday for King Kenny and we are now a much more together club under our greatest ever player.
The owners will soon endorse a new contract and he will get the deserved chance to return us to past glories.
YNWA.
Great performance, but most importantly three points in the bag. Nicely done for Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish.
ReplyDeleteWe completely out-played United and had the luxury of sitting back on a lead for the entire second half.
United found it hard to break down Liverpool's sturdy back four, as I said previously our defence has to be Rock.
Suarez was class, with the through ball to Kyte, netting in the first goal. In addition, kyte three goals truly were a strikers positioning.
A great team performance, also nice to see Carroll come on, first touch towards the Goal!
The amazing thing is that Luis Suarez has now said that we won't see the best of him for a long time - he states this is due to him being cup-tied for the Euro League meaning he can only play in the Premiership games.
ReplyDeleteHe has had a very tricky stop start beginning to his career with us and with the more regular games from next season the mind boggles to what he can achieve when totally match fit !!!
Suarez - I can't wait to see how his partnership with Andy Carroll pans out. A great team performance, no slackers, no sulkers, everyone giving it 110% so couldn;t ask for more than that.
ReplyDeleteReally pleased for Dirk Kuyt, his first hatrick for us is quite suprising but well timed and in a week where he signed a new contract. As I said, he's certainly good enough to be our 3rd or 4th choice striker so bring on Andy Caroll. I thought Andy's appearance was salivating, just the mere fact that he was dominant in the air.
Lucas has commented that he's still waiting for contract renewal talks to be opened up. He should be invited to stay at the club as a squad player, without doubt. Lucas also said that he was an attacking player before he came to us, scoring 4 goals in 9 tournament games for Brazil U21s when watched by our scouts. I think he's trying to get Stevie in the holding roll. Another "will he stay or will he go in the Summer"
LIVI