United beat old foes Liverpool 2-1 at Old Trafford to register only their second win in the Premiership this season. (Reports: BBC, Soccernet, ManUtd.com.) It was a welcome relief after an extended blip featuring some lacklustre performances.
Some notes:
- To no great surprise, Ferguson dropped both Djemba-Djemba and Howard. (Howard didn’t even make the bench.) I was surprised to see O’Shea playing in central midfield. He has played in that position before and his performance in this match would suggest Ferguson isn’t going to shy away from playing him in that position again. He got forward a lot, leaving Keane to concentrate on defensive duties.
- Speaking of Keane, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to eat my words after claiming he’s no longer capable of producing the goods at the highest level. This was another fine performance from the United captain. He may not have got forward that much but he was always ready and available to make that tackle to save the day.
- United’s defence, bolstered by the return of Ferdinand, redeemed itself in this match. There were occasions early in the second-half when the foursome of Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre and Heinze looked tentative but for the most part they dealt convincingly with Liverpool’s offense.
- Gary Neville is probably going to reclaim his place when he returns from injury, but I hope Brown gets an extended run out at right-back. He was always on hand to mop up on the rare occasions Ferdinand made a mistake and he got forward frequently to support Ronaldo.
- Heinze impresses more and more each time he appears. When he makes his mind up about making a tackle, he dives in full throttle even after he’s been yellow carded. He’s also apparently good enough at taking free-kicks to convince Giggs and Ronaldo to let him try a shot.
- Both United goals came courtesy of Silvestre headers from set-pieces. Liverpool’s marking was awful but you have to credit Silvestre for his timing, positioning and heading power.
- Ronaldo was absolutely rampant in this match. He was in such fine form, it was not unusual to see three Liverpool players converging on him whenever he had the ball.
- Gerrard was taken off in the first-half after breaking his metatarsal. Breaking that particular bone seems to be a rite of passage for England internationals. Beckham, Gary Neville and Rooney have all had the same injury.
- Liverpool’s goal had more to do with luck than poor defending. Finnan’s header hit Carroll’s shin and the ball rebounded off O’Shea to trickle into the United goal. Luck aside, you have to wonder who was supposed to mark Finnan when the Liverpool man made his run.
- Xabi Alonso almost produced the goal of the season when he unleashed a Beckham-style howitzer shot from the halfway line. The attempt had Carroll backpedalling so furiously he had to slap the ball down instead of grabbing it because his momentum carried him past the goal line.
