Man Utd 1 Liverpool 4 Theatre of Nightmares

I have often been curious as to why Old Trafford was dubbed - the theatre of dreams. The same thought occured to me as to why Utd were dubbed the untouchables. They dont have the guile of the Liverpool team of the 80s, the all round brilliant football of the Arsenal team that went unbeaten or the shere doggedness of the Chelsea team that won Abramovic his title. What they do have is a phenominal attacking force created with a chequebook. Yesterday under the spring sky we realised that Old Trafford is nothing more than a meeting place of football fans who want to watch their team, not follow them per say, just watch - and avoid any traffic congestion after the game.

The build up to the game was immense. Prawn sandwich prices rose across Manchester as they awaited the biggest match of the season, 75000 were expected and the biggest worldwide television audience for a premier league match ever. Rooney had poured petrol onto the fire with his comments about "hating Liverpool". Of course these words were rather misguided before a game like this but amazingly Ferguson leapt to Rooneys side with yet more Fergie Drivel, but the damage was done. With even more pressure on Utd and more fire in the belly of the Liverpool players both teams took to the field.

In the warmup Arbeloa tweaked his hamstring and he had to be replaced with the big Fin Sami Hyppia. While he is and will always be loved by the Anfield faithful there was a doubt whether his pace in the center could cope with the fast movement of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez. The same fear was had about Carragher at right back. Surely Ferguson would put Ronaldo up against the slow pace of Carragher? We can only assume Ferguson spent the game staring at a list of 30million + players flanked with his chequebook because his management was simply appaling.

The game opened up with Utd swamping Liverpool. The opening 5 minutes was all about corners to Utd and slick passing, Carrick stamping his authority on the game. Incredulously this lead to mutterings about Carrick being the best defensive midfielder in the world. Just ridiculous. After this initial burst Utds fraelties as a unit became more obvious. Missplaced passes from Anderson and Carrick failed to find the intelligent runs of Tevez and Park who were easily the best players for Utd on the day. Rooney was a vision of madness, seemingly taking all that hatred for Liverpool on his own team while his personal performance was everything we'd expect from a petulant child, not the gifted individual we all know he can be. Ferguson, why don't you manage your players?

As Mascherano and Lusas began to go to work Anderson faded and Carrick once again looked every bit the ginger stepchild of Roy Keane - ineffectual, toothless, and lacking ideas. At the other end Torres and Gerrard were starting to show why it is they that are the best attacking unit in the premiership. Ferdinand and Vidic looked utterly terrified. After 20 minutes Liverpool were looking comfortable and focussed, Utd looked threatening going forward but hopeless behind their attack. On 21 minutes a throughball for another great run by Park was looking a little too weighty. As Reina came out to smother the ball he was late. Park toe poked the ball out of play and went to ground under contact. It was a bad penalty to give away, but it was a penalty. Naturally, the anonymous World Player of the Year stepped up to take some glory and rammed the ball home. It felt a lot like many of the other games Liverpool have played at Old Trafford, one mistake has cost us dear in the past. Surely not again.

Gerrard and Torres were beginning to shine and their movement just in front of the Utd back 4 was causing them all sorts of problems and with Carrick failing to provide any cover they were exposed. Torres slipped inside Ferdinand and broke into the area but ran into traffic. On 27 minutes Skrtl cleared a ball from deep inside his own area and much like the first goal against Real Torres was hunting, this time a hapless Serbian. Vidic let the ball bounce and with an inane grin on his face was beaten to the bouncing ball. The only thing he closed in on was the Old Trafford turf with his face. Torres sped to the goal down the right and jinked the ball past the right of the elderly Van Der Sar. Old Traffod finally erupted with an atmosphere befitting the game with the Anfield faithful reaching a crescendo.

As the game wore on it could easily have gone either way. Torres broke past Vidic and was hauled down in the Utd box, Wiley gave nothing. It's hard to see how he could have given the angles and Liverpool did not spend much time arguing.  Instead they were busy defending and trying to get the ball through their midfield and out to Gerrard and Torres. Aurellio down the Liverpool left with Riera were not quite setting the world alight moving forward but they had earnt the right after the Brazillian had scooped up the greasy haired Portugese and popped him into his backpocket. Ronaldo was borderline embarrasing. Messi must have been laughing to himself as he watched the man who beat him to the coveted World Player of the Year fail to go past anybody the entire game. Such was Aurellios performance that by the end Ronaldo looked a broken man, devoid of confidence, ability, and vision. And still Ferguson failed to put him up against the tiring legs of an out of position Carragher.

Towards the end of the first half a brilliant interchange between the Liverpool forwards resulted in Gerrard bursting around the outside of Evra onto a ball from Torres. Evra did what he could and brought Gerrard down. Replays suggested Gerrard went down easily but the contact had been made. Mr Liverpool stepped up and slotted the penalty down low to the left of Van Der Sar who got a hand to it - but to no avail. At 2-1 Gerrard wheeled away towards the Liverpool fans holding the badge in his teeth and up to a Sky camera which he kissed. This meant everything.

The second half started much the same as the first. Utds attack was pressuring Liverpool but too many stray passes combined with some calm defending were halting their progress. At the other end the Utd were creaking. Finally it gave way. A through ball to a spinning Gerrard left Vidic exposed and badly beaten, his only choice was to pull down Gerrard. As the last man Wiley had no choice but to show the terrible Vidic yet another Red card against Liverpool. The resulting freekick was about 25 years out and jsut to the right of the Utd goal. Now, Liverpool have not scored from a freekick all season so little was expected. Which would explain why Van Der Sar stood rooted to the spot in shock as Aurellio's freekick curled over the wall and into the top right corner. Old Trafford began to empty.

By now Manchester Utd had joined Real Madrid and stood broken before the record world audience. Only Tevez and Rooney showed any life, Rooney mainly without direction. At 2-1 Ferguson had looked to his bench for a fightback and true to his chequebook nature broken his teams formation bringing on Giggs, Scholes, and Berbatov. To say this was a ridiculous move by Ferguson would be an understatement. His team lost it's shape and endevour. Berbatov melted into Ronaldoland, and I dont remember seeing Scholes touch a ball.

Babel came on for Torres and Dossena replaced Riera. A ball from Dossena found Babal on the penalty spot. He cleverly backed healed the ball for Gerrard who 8 yards out had Old Trafford at his mercy. Sadly he thumped it over the bar - to wry smiles. With the game in its death throws Dossena broke free from a clearance and calmly chipped the creaking frame of Van Der Sar to make it 4-1.

The result of this game provides Liverpool with little more than pride and an outlandish hope that they have broken Utd so badly that they will crumble in their remaining games. This is of course highly unlikely but with Ferguson displaying such poor judgement in this game anything is possible. Liverpools next game is against Villa, anything other than a win will relieve all the pressure they created at the theatre of nightmares.