“They” always say that a sign of a championship team (not the Coca Cola Championship, mind you) is that you can play like rubbish and yet pull off the victory. United have done it all season, and today was our turn to do so. Most of the time this season, these sort of performances have either led to draws or late, late winners. Today’s match was a bit different in that we did not play well whatsoever, yet were never chasing the game and nicked the 3-1 away victory. What matters at this stage of the title race is the result, not the performance, and this can be illustrated by Tuesday’s classic 4-4 draw against Arsenal where we performed admirably enough but only gained a point. Any supporter would rather see an ugly 3-1 win than a beautiful 4-4 draw. ANY supporter. You don’t even have to do a survey. It’s just the truth. And the truth of this 3-1 victory today was that we were nervy, had poor first touches, lacked any sort of conviction with our horrific long range shooting, and looked shaky in the back four yet again. But we won, thanks to a Kuyt brace and a lovely Alonso crackerjack of a goal.
The match was definitely tense. Watching at home was not what I would call enjoyable for the first 43 minutes, with Liverpool regularly cheaply giving the ball away and missing the half chances we did create in a manner that made my hair fall out. Mascherano, Insua and Lucas were especially guilty of wayward shooting, not even remotely finding accuracy in their shooting boots. They would find great positions, which was important, but then would completely shank the opportunity high, wide, and not at all handsome. But then Alonso stepped up after a debatable free kick was given. Mascherano appeared to trip over his own feet from about 25 yards out and on his way down, Boateng had a little nibble and made very little contact. The foul was given, though, and Alonso softly hit the ball into the Hull City wall. Fortunate smiles on a winning team, however, and the ball fell right back into the stride of Alonso who blasted the ball low into the corner. It was one of those “all laces” strikes that traveled about 2000 miles per hour and about 1-2 feet off of the ground the entire way. Truly a glorious hit. This was right before halftime, and it was perfect timing from Xabi. We were beginning to look dreadful before that strike, and the fear was that we were so nervous from the past two 4-4 matches that we were scared to really push forward. This trike helped us regain our attacking confidence and additionally calmed down the nerves of the defenders.
The second half was a fair better showing from Liverpool. Well, at least the first 25 minutes were. A stupid lashing out from Hull’s Caleb Folan proved to be our saving grace. I’ll admit it… Skrtel cut him off in kind of a “dick” fashion. That’s putting it kindly, really. He went in like a true a-hole to block Folan’s path, and you could understand the frustration from the young Irish striker. But to twice slap Skrtel’s head and then kick him (albeit without making much contact) whilst he was down from the slap-fest was truly a sign of utter stupidity and hot-temperedness. It was rash, and Hull’s discipline faded… playing right into the hands of our improving attack. We quickly scored the second, but it was a bit controversial. From the armchair at home, it was VERY obvious that the corner taken by Alonso was dubious to say the least! Lord knows how the linesman nor the referee were able to see that the ball was a full YARD in front of the corner stripe. Then the ball hit Lucas in the arm in a scramble in the box… though that would have been a bit harsh on the Brazilian, as the ball was headed less than a foot away from him and with pace. When the ball eventually found space, Skrtel’s strike was poorly hit, yet fortune smiled ONCE AGAIN on the Reds and fell right into the path of Dirk Kuyt’s shaggy head and it was an easy tap-in header into the back of the net. 2-0 it was, and though we had been playing ugly, it would clearly be an easy rout, right?
Not so much.
Liverpool’s defense found a way to look nervy, sloppy, disorganized, etc. Carragher, and not for the first time this season, waffled on his positioning on a counterattack, and Skrtel failed to recognize Arbeloa’s attempt to push Cousin out wide, giving Cousin an easy path to the goalmouth and an easier sliding throughball into the path of the charging Geovanni. Carra was sitting right in the middle of the box and decided to let the ball roll past him, but in fairness a touch might have resulted in an own-goal. The alternative, though, was a tap-in for Geovanni! In other words, what was Carra playing at? I’m getting a bit nervous about him this season. Rafa has chopped and changed our back four a lot this season, with Carra being the only player who is the common denominator in our lack of clean sheets as of late. He is a brilliant player, not to mention an absolute legend for the club, but right now on form he is not earning his place in the side. One could also say that Insua should have tracked back quicker, but to blame him would be harsh given that he had pushed very far forward before the counter.
So playing one man up and giving up a goal was not really that clever from us. A few nervous moments insued, but we held our ground and we extended our lead. Before that, though, Torres hit the bar with a powerful header against the crossbar, showing signs that he’s truly recovered from his injury crisis. Anyhow, the win was sealed at 90 minutes by Kuyt’s tap-in from a deflected Arbeloa strike that Hull really should have dealed with far better than they did. No matter, we were up 3-1 at the KC Stadium and had did our part.
Kuyt’s celebration was probably my favorite part of the match, as he really mocked Fergie’s rant about Rafa’s “lack of respect gesture” when we played Blackburn. Kuyt’s “it’s over” celebration must have truly pissed off Ferguson… or will do when he sees it. I love that from Kuyt. His passion and understanding about what the Liverpool supporters are all about (you know… hating Man U…) are very admirable qualities. His brace was an important step in continuing the title challenge, and that is now 13 goals on the season for the Dutchman.
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