Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Liverpool arrived at Old Trafford with fanfare and attitude after their FA Cup streaky win at home against the Champions of England.
Expectations of a classic eroded with an ambiguous formation by Kenny Dalglish playing Steven Gerrard and Jay Spearing in front of his first choice back five in a spoiling formation.
The inclusion of Dirk Kuyt, Stewart Downing and Luis Suarez gave a lopsided look to a team that is proving its inadequacy to play creative football.
Is that really all you’ve got King Kenny? Where will this expensive flop of a team go now?
Before a ball was kicked the sight of Suarez added more fuel to the racism debate that has dragged the game into disrepute this year as he refused to shake Patrice Evra’s hand in the customary sign of respect held before the start of every Premier League match.
For those fans and viewers who saw the incident live, it made us realise that this really is a man who has no consideration for his actions and no remorse for his outburst. That single act of a man who has served his sentence but is asking for another one coloured what followed, if I might use the ‘colour’ word inoffensively.
In a game of two halves, Manchester United simply proved 5 places, and now 19 points, fairly represents the gap between these sides.
Evra had another woeful game, perhaps because of his state of mind, and yet Liverpool were not good enough to put a shot on target despite the Kuyt/Glen Johnson duo being left to attack our out of form left-back by the continued drift into midfield by Ryan Giggs in the first half. Sir Alex fixed that at the break and all hope was gone for the Scousers.
For United the constant pressure from massive possession stats resulted in chances galore, Wayne Rooney’s recent return to form continued, although his contribution outside the box is almost zero. He did enough in it to undo the mass defence Dalglish had mounted and so the Kuyt, Downing and Spearing left the field as they had prove inadequate on it. The result was too little, too late.
Antonio Valencia ripped Jose Enrique apart, and Danny Welbeck had his best game of the season in my view as he ran at the defence and held up the ball like the mobile centre forward he is.
Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes played like Xavi and Andres Iniesta, they dominated. They are hardly the Barcelona duo and so that is the status of the Liverpool midfield in a sentence.
Jonny Evans is looking good again, Rio Ferdiannd covered well, Rafael is playing his best since joining the club and David De Gea had nothing other than a late long range effort to save. United won at a canter.
At the end the sad sight of Evra taunting Suarez gave up some of the moral high ground his offer of a handshake had gained him. The FA might say he incited trouble, I wouldn’t argue if he was banned for 3 games, he didn’t have to do that.
On the other hand Suarez is guilty of bringing the game and his club into disrepute. Dalglish failed to act when his only claim of defence was that of temporary blindness, both of them should expect the FA and John Henry to act.
Suarez is a disgrace and should get a repeat of his 8 game ban and a warning that this will be doubled for any repeat offence until he is gone from our game. Dalglish should get a public dressing down, followed by him apologizing, or he could be accused of condoning the actions of his best player and therefore placing himself in the same category as Suarez.
If one fan gets hurt as a result of the inciting of the fans by Suarez’s actions then who will take responsibility for that?
An action in a civil case, should that occur, would be an interesting situation, totally preventable by an apology. We do not need such an outcome, because we love the sport but it’s a sport, entertainment and not life or death, whatever the late Bill Shankly may have said.
In the end the best team won, but the sport was tainted. Liverpool, for whom we all respect for Hillsborough lost some of that because of one man. And that is the sad fact from 11th Feb 2012 only 54 years since Munich, a day when black armbands epitomized what Suarez did to the spirit of the game.
Yours from America.
By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve
