A few points about last week’s match against Man Yoo…
(1) The match against Man Utd was about much
more than the league.
(2) The fact is that there were decisions in the
match that were skewed in Man Utd's favor.
On a day all about Justice For The 96, injustice was
done to Liverpool in the match.
(3) What should not be tolerated is the 'fans'
who made airplane signals to man Utd fans after the game. They have to be found
and criminally prosecuted. Similarly, Manchester United should open criminal
prosecution against the fans who chanted against Hillsborough / Heysel
(4) Liverpool
fans at Anfield have to be applauded especially for raising the spirits of
Rodgers by chanting his name.
(5) This season is not a write off for Liverpool
Football Club.
For my first blog entry, I want to share
a few thoughts on the recent Liverpool –
Manchester United game.
As any educated football fan would know, this game was
much bigger than any another EPL game. Firstly, it’s the first home game for
Liverpool after the Hillsborough Independent Panel exonerated the Liverpool
fans of any blame for the disaster that led to 96 lives being perished, all
Liverpool fans. Secondly, it’s a game pitting Liverpool and Manchester United,
by far the 2 most successful clubs in England and among the biggest clubs
in the world. So no, it was not just any another game.
The one theme that I want to touch on for
this post is à injustice.
As I mentioned earlier, Liverpool
fans were finally exonerated of any blame after 23 long years.
Finally, justice in some form, though the
real justice will come when the perpetrators are criminally prosecuted.
So onto the match. It was obvious from
the word go that Liverpool players wanted it
far more than the Manchester United players. Gerrard was on song, Joe Allen as
impressive as ever and Sterling
proving he is the jewel in the crown again. Liverpool
were passing the ball better, controlling the midfield and even the defensive
errors were cut down.
And then it happened.
The first moment of injustice. What was
Halsey thinking? An absolutely ridiculous decision.
Bollocks.
Sorry,I am getting ahead of myself.
My blood has started boiling.
Shelvey gets a great tackle in on Ryan
Giggs and recovers instantly to go for the loose ball. Now Johnny Evans and
Shelvey both go for the ball and both lunge for it. Both made reckless and
possibly dangerous tackles.
But Johnny Evans has something that
Shelvey doesn’t.
Acting skills.
Johnny Evans rolls on the ground afterwards,
only to recover after red has been shown.
The fact is that only Shelvey was
punished when both players should have been treated equally.
Both should have been given a yellow in
my opinion.
Shelvey is rightly pissed and has a few choice words for Fergie on
his way to the tunnel.
What a legend!
So screw it. Whatever. Let’s go on. End
of the half. Goalless and Liverpool still the
better team after the sending off. And they start the second half with a bang.
Goal in the first minute and it had to be the skipper. Captain fantastic.
Steven Gerrard. Fantastic work by Suso too for the buildup.
And of course, Manchester United equalize
within 5 minutes through a fantastic strike by Rafael. What a player he’s going
to be. A sure shot for the best right back in the world in a couple of years if
he can get over the injury and indiscipline issues.
The second moment of injustice happens
after this.
Valencia
gets a penalty without any contact. This was just, frankly, embarrassing for
Halsey, the referee. Suarez, before that, had a legit penalty appeal turned
down despite there being contact by Evans but Halsey turns it down.
So of course,
when Valencia
dives, it should have been turned down.
But here the Fergie effect comes into play.
A
day before the match, Fergie says that they never get decisions going their way
at Anfield. It was an absolutely pathetic decision that the referee should be
ashamed of and when you make a decision like this at
1-1, you have to make
sure that you are absolutely spot on about it.
You could tell by his arms waving after
awarding the penalty that he wasn’t sure about it but gave it anyways.
RVP converts to give United the lead at 1
– 2.
The third moment of injustice to Liverpool happens after this. RVP makes a ridiculous
tackle on Suso which was very similar to the one that Shelvey gets a red card
for. But in this case RVP only gets a yellow. I think a yellow was fair enough,
but given that Shelvey got a red, RVP should have gotten a red too.
So that is the story of the match. The
injustice shown to Liverpool players and fans
by Halsey on a day that was all about Justice for the 96.
So of course, Liverpool
fans are pissed.
For me, the ‘fans’ who should be criminally prosecuted are
the ones who made the airplanes gesture to the travelling Manchester United
fans at Anfield. It is absolutely disgraceful and there should be no place for
something like this on a football field. Similarly,
Manchester United should open criminal prosecution against the fans who chanted
against Hillsborough / Heysel.
Finally, I want to say a couple of things
about Brendan Rodgers. I have become a big fan of him, despite our start of the
season. He’s fearless. Not afraid of telling underperforming senior players
like Enrique and Downing to improve or get out of the team and neither is he
afraid of playing youngsters in huge games like Sterling
against Manchester
City and in subsequent
matchers and Suso against Manchester United. I also think the fans at Anfield
deserve a huge round of applause for raising Rodgers spirits by chanting “Only
one Bendan Rodgers” as a reply to “You are getting sacked in the morning” by
the travelling Manchester United supporters. That would have raised his
spirits.
Brilliant touch by the Liverpool
fans.
So what’s next for Liverpool?
Is this season a write off? Absolutely not. I feel that the target for Liverpool from this point onwards for this season should
be between 60 – 70 points for the season.
This might or might not put Liverpool out
of contention for a CL position, but by achieving this points tally, the
youngsters would have proven that they have not only the skill but the
mentality to play for Liverpool at the top
level. As Paul Tomkins rightly put it, the season starts now for Liverpool.
It’s not off to a good start in terms of
injuries and lack of personnel, but the true test of character is when your
backs are up against the wall.
This post is made by guest
writer: Akhil Bandhari
