Premier League Ponderings – Week 30
The English Classic
It’s the big one. The most passionate, hate-filled, desperate and brilliant rivalry in English football. Arsenal vs Spurs, United vs City, Liverpool vs Everton, Chelsea vs the rest of London… they all fall by the wayside.
And ohmylord what a game it was! Everything from controversy to sublimity, from glory to disaster. There was violence, there was passion, there was Pele and there was Mata. And Stevie G too, though not for very long…
Okay, right. Liverpool undefeated in 2015, without a loss since the 3-0 flop at Old Trafford, arguably the form team in the Premier League. Manchester United slowly linking together some good results, boosted by their best performance of the season against Spurs the week before. Liverpool stuck with the 3-4-3 formation that has brought them so much success recently. Remember when Brendan Rodgers was in danger for his job? Well, this formation is what saved him. Although it was a formation change at half-time against Swansea that saved them last game, so hmm. No Gerrard, he remained on the bench for his final game against the ol’ enemy, while Raheem Sterling got the start at right wing-back, curiously. That allowed Adam Lallana to start, but it also probably limited one of their best attacking options. More on him later.
Meanwhile Manchester United stuck with an unchanged team from Spurs. Rooney up top, Mata and Young starting with Di Maria on the bench. Smalling and Jones holding tight at the back. Unbeknownst to me, it seems like everybody had Liverpool to take this in a cakewalk. Or maybe that’s just the narrative that’s come out since. As a sympathetic United fan myself (please don’t stop reading…), I was hyper confident, just as I have been ahead of every big game this season. So take what you will from that.
Fellaini vs Can. That was one that LVG deliberately set up to expose. Mary getting the ball on his chest and holding off the young German like he was a small child. Can got a few headers in but it was a brutal game for him. Poor lad isn’t even a real defender, he’s just there because he can pass the ball. Getting his ankles broken by Daley Blind (not Mata, not Rooney, not Herrera… but Blind) was a low-point in a game where he was offered very little protection. From his manager and his right wing-back both.
Sterling just didn’t look that interested, shockingly considering the occasion. He’s an inexperienced player who’s had a sharp rise to fame and he probably doesn’t deal too well with his own petulance. Only 44 touches in 90 minutes, his opposite number Antonio Valencia had 87. It’s funny, coz I’m pretty sure I remember Sterling playing that spot in the early days of 3-4-3 and it wasn’t working. Ah, but how else are you gonna squeeze Sturride/Sterling/Coutinho/Lallana all in the same team. Note that LVG happily left Di Maria on the bench. Sterling got moved further forward in the second half after Lallana came off, with Gerrard coming on briefly in the middle. That helped him plenty, and the team were much more capable up top after that.
United picked up where they left off in the first half against Spurs. Crisp and swift passing, moving it at pace and moving it forward where they could… it was miles away from the lazy sideways stuff of a few months ago. You want some tactical analysis as to how that came to be? His name is Michael Carrick. No English midfielder controls the play and plays the ball better (nope, not you Hendo, though that one ball into Sturridge was a beauty, not you either Stevie G, not anymore). He bosses a game like a point guard in basketball. Like a scrum half in rugby. Quick passes to get out of trouble, creating space for himself and others. Especially others. And when he gets to play alongside possession bunnies like Ander Herrera and Juan Mata, he has plenty of fellow foil.
The first goal came early and deservedly. Ander Herrera got some space in the middle and he picked on Alberto Moreno playing too high.
Juan Mata made a great run, just beating the offside trap, and he slipped it in confidently from a tougher angle than it initially looked. Lil Johnny Kills has had to wait long for his chances at United, he’s been a tough guy to fit into the team, but it seems like with Van Gaal finally stumbling on a system that both works and also flaunts his lauded philosophy, Mata might well be a regular for the rest of the season.
United held fort, though it’s never out of the question that someone like Dan Sturridge creates something unexpected and brilliant. In a game where Coutinho was quiet, Sterling marginalised and Lallana came off injured, Sturridge was made to work harder than he should have. He was pretty isolated, yet it was he that you felt most likely to break the shackles. A gorgeous ball from Henderson to Sturridge nearly made something, DS popping it back across goal to Lallana whose shot went just wide. Probably should’ve been 1-1.
I wonder if Liverpool needed some kind of enforcer to take Fellaini on head to head. Often it’s best not to attack a guy’s strength, but with Fellaini winning 50/50s all day, United already had a head start. Just get in there, draw a couple fouls from the guy and get him in yellow card trouble.
And now we come to the main event. If Rodgers put Gerrard in to provide a little energy, then he certainly got that. 6 touches, a tackle and a red card all in 38 seconds.
Who cares that he apologised? He shouldn’t have stamped on the lad, what a moron. A bit bleeding late for apologies after you’ve singlehandedly dug your team into a hole against their most bitter rivals. Though I have to say, as far as comedy goes, seeing Gerrard’s face as that red card came out was beyond hilarious. I was in fits and it was like 3.30 in the morning. And this was a game that had no shortage of comedic moments either, from Can’s ice-skates, to Di Maria catching the ball in the field of play to Mario Bolotelli getting the ‘HOLD ME BACK!’ treatment from fans in the stands. If they sell DVDs of this game, I want one.
Granted, Liverpool actually played better with 10 men. It’s a sad indictment on Gerrard’s final days at the club for which he has been the face for so many years, but they genuinely don’t need him anymore. He’s nothing but a luxury. Without him they more or less ditched the system and pushed their wing-backs inwards slightly. United stopped pressing as they had been for some reason, and the game slowed down in the home side’s favour.
Whenever Sterling runs at Jones, things seem likely to happen. However it really has to be commended the efforts of Jones and Smalling, who were both superb for the most part. It finally seems that MUFC have a partnership at the back that they have trust in, and who the hell woulda thought it’d be these two even only a few weeks ago!? Credit where it’s due, they had very few troubles, and with the exception of the goal, they were all down to opposition quality and not silly errors. David De Gea barely had a save to make.
Rodgers deserves criticism for putting several of his players in tough spots by living with his formation with no regards to the other team’s strengths and weaknesses. He also deserves enormous praise for how he handled the red card. He managed the second half as well as he possibly could have, later bringing on Super Mario for the woeful Alberto Moreno and adjusting his guys to where they could hide the disadvantage. It’s only a shame it took a moment of madness for him to think of it.
As for Lucky Louie, he could have done better than to throw on Angel Di Maria. When you’re winning, you want to keep the ball. ADM gives the ball away like free candy at a schoolyard. At least he put him on the left hand side so the damage was limited without him having to cut inside onto his left foot to lose it each time. Granted, his chipped ball in for Juan Mata’s brilliant second was sumptuously special.
See, Di Maria has these moments of undoubted class. He was the man of the match in the Champions League final after all. He’s gonna need time to adapt though, he doesn’t speak English and his house has already been robbed (seriously). It’s not an easy transition and plenty of players don’t make it in the first season, Di Maria didn’t even get a pre-season with them. You can understand why Van Gaal needs to show faith in him in a big game but his impact was mostly negative in this one.
Ooh, but that goal. That was something else. I could watch this over and over again. Mata’s gone from expendable to essential in a couple of weeks.
Carrick’s influence faded in the second half as he sat deeper and deeper. He tried to step up one time and got caught on the ball which led directly to Sturridge’s goal and a lifeline for LFC. The ball slipped into him seemed to bisect defenders too easily and Jones was caught not playing tight to DS’s nimble feet. De Gea beaten at the near post. A few errors all at once and that’s how a goal is scored. Lovely stuff from Sturridge though.
But there was no equaliser coming. Not even a second shot on target. LVG even went with the luxury of throwing Falcao on, if only to get Rooney in deeper as a shield. The game was duly iced and a massive result in stone. United five points ahead of ‘Pool, the rat race looking clearer these days.
You know it was an entertaining game when the England captain misses a penalty and you almost forget to mention it. Definite penalty, Blind getting the best of his skating pal Emre Can again, and Rooney capping off a disappointing night (personally) with a routine spot kick that was well saved by Mignolet. Not a bad pen, but surely not a good one either. One of those ‘dive the right way and you’ll save it’ types. It didn’t matter (Mata), and Liverpool didn’t really deserve a 3-1 loss. 2-1 for sure, but not 3-1.
Other Ponderings
Martin Skrtel oughta get a ban for stomping on De Gea as time expired. He’s been charged, so it’s coming.
Joe Allen? Who’s he?
Shout out to Joseph Barton (as he prefers to be known), who didn’t get booked in his return from suspension. This after seven consecutive games with a yellow, broken only by a red in the eighth.
You know who’s fallen off the radar? Graziano Pelle of Southampton. His goal drought is reaching the stage you’d need a camel to cross it.
When you can blow a lead like that and still find a way to win, the title should fall into place nice and easy for Chelsea. Especially with the next few teams all scrapping amongst themselves. All they need are a few low-key wins, slide under the radar and then maybe smash someone 6-0 to seal it. Although they do still have to play United, Arsenal and Liverpool, so six points clear is hardly safety.
Harry Hotspur, England legend in the making. Nice way to celebrate your first call-up with a hatty. With the state of Spurs’ defence, his goals are Bale-ing them up the table. His buddy Ryan Mason got a warranted call up too after Lallana’s injury.
Arsenal’s six-game winning streak is the longest active one in the EPL.
If you combine his results with Newcastle and Palace, Alan Pardew FC is sitting on 40 points, above either one of those teams and with a game in hand.
It reeeeally looks like all three promoted teams are headed for the drop.