by LFC2007 » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:01 pm
What a shit game, it could hardly have turned out to be more disappointing. Thank f*ck we've got the derby next weekend to put things right.
First off, the Mascherano incident, and my take.
Mascherano was unquestionably in the wrong to badger Bennett on a number of occasions, (because) you just can't do that with Bennett, he's a known tw@t who has a very low tolerance threshold to any hint of a player undermining his authority. A threshold much lower than most other ref's.
I could sense Mascherano was about to get a second yellow at some point, because of the way he was going on and his body language, and that it was Mr Bennett of course. I was hoping we could make it to half time and re-assess, because of this and because we hadn't settled into a rhythm on the playing side of things.
I thought the ref made a poor decision in sending him off, in that, the actual incident didn't warrant a yellow, and the ref didn't communicate to either i) The Captain, or ii) The Manager, beforehand to warn them that he may take serious action if the badgering continued. It's one of the biggest fixtures in the footballing calendar and the ref has a responsibility to the fans at the stadium, and those watching on TV to ensure that it flows as best as possible. If he'd had a word with Rafa or Gerrard, or even Carragher and told either: 'look, any more nonsense from Mascherano and he's off', or preferrably in a more subtle way 'I'm trying my best to keep the game flowing, I don't want to be forced into sending anyone off', he would then have had full justification to go and give Mascherano the second yellow - if he persisted with the swearing afterwards. It doesn't have to be so authoritarian and this is where the disconnect appears. The key is effective communication. If Mascherano was unwilling accept the ref as a figure of authority, he'd have surely accepted the words of Rafa as binding to his behaviour. If not then he can justify that he's done everything in his power to keep the game flowing. Bennett is a stubborn f*cker though, and he doesn't communicate properly with the players. If you take the 'I'm the dog's bollocks and what I say goes attitude' as a ref (Bennett is of this sort), you encourage a divide between the officials and players that entices inflammatory behaviour. If, for example, Howard Webb or Mark Clattenburg had been ref'ing the match, they probably would have taken a more consensual approach and I don't think he'd have gone. In games of such magnitude, you can expect tempers to flare, and players to be aggrieved even more so. As a ref you have to adapt to these circumstance and do everything possible in order to make the game flow. Bennett didn't do that yesterday.
As for the game, although it's difficult to analyse it because of the sending off, I thought the gulf in class was evident even before the sending off.
We looked very edgy from the off, our passing was sloppy and we couldn't settle into our game. Skrtel and Reina were at fault for the opening goal. Skrtel had to be more aware, he needed to spot the danger whilst Rooney was retrieving the ball, then quickly set himself for the defensive header away. He was static because he hadn't anticipated the threat, you need to be driving the ball away with the header and that means positioning yourself in anticipation of the threat. Reina shouldn't have come out, and he was mainly at fault IMO because he probably would have saved it but for his foray into no man's land. Unless you're 100% certain you can get there you don't venture out, it's as simple as that.
In terms of the formation, you can't really make a firm appraisal of it given the sending off. I think Riise might have been better served playing on the left instead of Babel. He (Babel) needs a fair portion of space to be effective and although he had one run into the box, he was largely anonymous throughout. We needed an outlet at times, even if it was just to retain possession for a bit longer, and at least a natural left footer would've given us that. Overall, they were more dynamic, and for our Torres they had Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs and Evra bombing one, with Nani and Tevez on the bench. The skill, along with the pace and power of these players told. Scholes may be getting on but he was also very lively as was Anderson, who was excellent.
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