We blew it through a lack of composure and discipline, and inexperience played a part as it's easy to forget that this is a team of kids still learning the game. *United reacted better to going down to ten then we did, and y the time we'd composed ourselves they were level at 2-2. But the ref ruined the game in my opinion as three of the four red cards were bullshit, and the one he got right (Pogba) wouldn't have happened if he'd given the foul for the push on Flanagan. *I say he got that one right, only because I'm assuming the law states you have to book a player for taking a pen like that. I don't know if that is the case, if not then I stand corrected. The red cards for Coady and their full back were a joke. I've been watching youth games for a while, and players never get red cards for that kind of thing. The ref usually gets a grip of them and tells them to stop being dickheads and get on with the game. *It usually works too. Here's how much of a twat that Morrison is. When him and Flanagan got into it, he said to him "I've got more money than you and your whole family" The funny thing is, the Flanagan family own half of Liverpool. Shows you his mentality though.
Did you notice that Conor Coady ended up with a bloody mouth.And they have the brass balls to call Liverpool players thugs.They should look at their own first.I heard Man United fans having the audacity to blame Liverpool for the skirmish.The evidence is on whom came worse off.And it wasn't a Man United player.Dirty thugs the lot of them
Did you actually see the Utd player hit or punch the Liverpool lad? I didn't when I watched the footage. Also I cannot believe you actually said: It was Coady who caused the incident in the first place. Watch it again, the ball was won fairly and the Liverpool player kicked the Utd player twice for no good reason expect frustration and a lack of discipline. Also a bit rich you calling Utd players dirty thugs considering the Carragher tackle last week.
Well that was disappointing. 2-0 up and cruising into a two legged semi-final with Chelsea, and then it all just fell apart. The entire game turned on it's head with the award of a penalty and red card for Stephen Sama, and even though United were also reduced to ten men in comical circumstances immediately afterwards, they coped better with the reshuffling they had to do and they rode the wave of momentum they had to come away with a victory they probably didn't deserve. Liverpool's youngsters only have themselves to blame, although the referee certainly didn't come out of it with any credit as he effectively ruined the game with his heavy handed approach. It all started so well too. Rodolfo Borrell's lads were quickest out of the blocks and a little over a minute in we went close to opening the scoring when Suso's corner was met on the run by Wisdom, but his header flew just over the bar. Suso then had a shot saved after Sterling had escaped down left wing and cut the ball back to him, and it was Liverpool making all the early running kicking towards a packed Kop End. Sterling was being closely marked but his movement meant he was still able to find space. When you think of Sterling you think of his electric pace, but there's more to his game than that as he demonstrated when creating the opening goal for Morgan with a clever pass through a defender's legs. Morgan produced a cool finish in front of the Kop and then went nuts. Badge kissing, knee sliding, you could see he was living the dream of every young Kopite. Amusingly, Craig Roddan also tried to come sliding in on his knees, except his knee stuck in the turf and he flew head first to the floor. At this stage it was all going according to plan. United looked capable of causing problems and their right winger Cole was having a good battle with Brad Smith, but any time they'd looked like they were about to really threaten us, the imperious Andre Wisdom was there to snuff out the danger. The bigger attacking threat was coming from the reds, with Suso and Sterling seeing plenty of the ball early on. The young Spaniard won possession in the middle of the park and fed Coady, who produced a lovely weighted pass inside full back to set Sterling racing into the box. He cut inside and struck a shot with his left foot, but the keeper made a good save. That one little move illustrated what the first team are lacking. Whereas Coady was able to just roll a ball inside the full back knowing that Sterling would get there easily, had that been Gerrard in that position he'd have had to play it to feet as Maxi, Cole, Dirk etc wouldn't have had the pace to get in behind. The u18s have great flexibility in their forward positions, and all are interchangeable. The three behind Morgan all switched positions midway through the half, which Suso moving central, Sterling switching to the right and Adorjan moving to the left. I didn't think that worked as well however, as Adorjan doesn't have the pace to be effective out wide and Sterling looked more dangerous on the left than right. Worth a try though.
The second half saw Borrell revert back to how they had started the game, and it wasn't long before the lads doubled their lead. Adorjan played a delightful ball inside the full back to the overlapping Smith who galloped onto it and drilled a perfect cross into the danger area where Morgan was waiting to put the ball in at the far post. I mentioned he was living the dream scoring in front of the Kop, and I'm sure he'd also dreamt of this moment too, as he ran across in front of the United fans holding up five fingers. That's 11 goals in his last eight u18 games now for Morgan. We had one foot in the semi finals now as not only were we 2-0 up, but we were well worth the lead and looking very comfortable. Then the whole momentum of the game shifted as United were awarded a penalty and Liverpool had Sama sent off. A few points about this. Firstly, it was poor communication from the reds backline. Belford either needed to come out and clear the ball, or stay back and allow Flanagan to nod it back to him. He did neither and got too close to Flanagan which caused the full back to hesitate. However, there is then a clear shove in the back of Flano which should have been spotted, and although Sama holds back Tunnicliffe I don't think it was a clear red card as Belford was back and in a position to possibly make a save. The red card was debatable, it could have gone either way but if the referee spots the push in the back on Flanagan then what followed would not have happened and we have a different game on our hands. With Sama headed back to the changing rooms and United holding a man advantage and preparing to take a penalty, things were looking dodgy for us. But what happened then was just unbelievable. Pogba is clearly stupid, as only a complete moron thinks you can dummy a penalty like that and get away with it. The Aldridge stuttered run up was one thing, but this was taking that to the very extreme, it was almost as laughable as the look of bewilderment on his face when the ref ordered him to retake it. "We're Man United, we'll do what we want" indeed. The ref had no choice but to disallow it, and I presume he had no choice but to also issue a yellow card (I guess the rules state he has to do that, otherwise I'd say once again he's been harsh). About 30 seconds later he produced a red, which I initially assumed must have been for dissent as a lot of United players were around him complaining about him disallowing the penalty (they start them young at Old Trafford). It turns out the red card was because Pogba had been booked earlier in the game for a trip on Sterling. Again, poor refereeing as it took him so long to realise he'd already booked the player earlier that everyone was confused as to what was happening. It looked like he needed Coady and Flanagan to tell him he'd already booked Pogba. What pissed me off about it though, is when Pogba was initially yellow carded, he didn't protest, he just looked stunned. Clearly he knew it was a second yellow, but when the red card didn't follow he thought he'd got away with it. That's why he didn't protest. When the ref corrected his mistake and sent him off, he went nuts. Why though? He knew he'd been booked twice, and surely even someone with his apparent lack of football knowledge knows that means an early bath. If he felt so aggrieved, why didn't he protest the second yellow? Because he thought the ref had forgotten about the first one, and didn't want to draw any more attention to himself that's why. When the dust settled on it all, it was ten v ten and Cole stepped up to tuck the penalty away and make the score 2-1. We didn't react well to it at all, we shuffled players around and it unsettled the shape of the side. Coady dropped into defence, with Adorjan moving back into midfield to partner Roddan. With Rodolfo preparing to bring on centre back Matty McGiveron, United capitalised on the uncertainty in the reds side by grabbing an equaliser. The lively Cole skinned Smith down the Liverpool left and cut the ball across the box where Morrison arrived unmarked to put the ball past Belford. Whether that goal would have happened had Coady been in midfield instead of at the back we'll never know, but United had three players on the back post with only Flanagan there to cover. The ball evaded everyone and Morrison was all alone. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't had to reshuffle, but the harsh reality is we didn't adapt well enough to going down to ten men and we paid the price. McGiveron was introduced in place of Roddan, meaning Coady was able to go back into midfield alongside Adorjan. Liverpool settled down again and began to get a grip of the game once more. Morgan almost grabbed his hat-trick when another nice through ball from Sterling found him in the box, and although his first touch was superb and allowed him to go past his marker, the keeper was out quickly to save at his feet. Sterling latched onto the rebound, but again the keeper made a brave stop. He was United's best player, he played very well. The reds suffered another blow when Morgan was forced off through injury. He'd led the line brilliantly and was a constant danger to the United backline with his clever movement and fantastic work rate. Tony Silva was his replacement, but that hurt the side as Tony is far more effective out wide than through the middle. I'm sure a lot of people were wondering why Michael Ngoo wasn't brought on, but Rodolfo had a problem there as the prospect of extra time meant he had to wait. Ngoo has been out a while and has only just returned to training, he couldn't have played twenty minutes plus half an hour of extra time, so Borrell had to wait before putting him on. Ideally I'm sure Rodolfo wanted to get to extra time and then bring on the big man. He never got the opportunity to do it though, as United got a corner late on and although it was half cleared by Adorjan, Morrison met it with a sweet volley to give his side the lead with only a few minutes left. Ngoo was immediately sent out, but the game became very scrappy after that, with players waging their own personal battles against eachother. Two more were sent off, and if the referee had been consistent in his over zealous attitude then at least two more could have joined them. It all kicked off when Coady was caught in face by a stray arm from Blackett and he kicked out at him. They went to head to head, there was a bit of handbags but the referee totally over reacted and sent both off. That would not have happened in an Academy League game. The ref would have just told them both to stop acting daft and get on with the game and that would have been that. Two yellow cards at worst, and get on with the game. Not this fella though. Both off, Coady with blood streaming from his nose. From what I saw, Flanagan and Morrison did just as much as Coady and Blackett, but neither were even cautioned. I'm told that Morrison had attempted to goad Flanagan by saying "I've got more money than you and your whole family" Little scumbag might want to try googling 'the Flanagan Group' and having a rethink, as John's family own half of Liverpool. Shows you the mentality of Morrison though. The scumbags in that away end singing about Hillsborough and setting off flares will love him. A minute later, Flanagan went right through him. Morrison grabbed him by the throat as he lay on the floor. Flanagan was booked, no punishment for Morrison. Becoming a familiar story that actually (if you don't know what I'm on about it, google "ravel morrison intimidating witness"). I wonder if his defence in court was 'I'm Man United, I'll do what I want". Next it was Andre Wisdom's turn for some handbags as he tangled with their substitute down by the Kop corner flag. Two more yellow cards were awarded. Again, had this been an Academy game the ref would have just told them to behave themselves and wouldn't have even bothered yellow carding them as there was basically nothing in it. This ref was just **** though. This was Liverpool v Manchester United in the youth cup. Most of these lads support the team they are playing for and therefore the game means a hell of a lot as they are playing against their biggest rivals. The referee showed no understanding of the situation though. He completely ruined the game, but we also need to look at ourselves for losing our discipline and shape. When they scored the third goal, there was still time left for us to get an equaliser. Most of that time was wasted with players getting into pushing and shoving matches. It played right into the mancs' hands.
We've got a better side than United, and for most of the game we showed it. But a lack of composure and discipline cost us, and now it's them who will be facing Chelsea in the semi's. Maybe the lads let the occasion get to them, it certainly looked like it. It's a pity, as this was a great opportunity for them to win a trophy. Of course the main thing is having players come through, and winning the youth cup isn't a guarantee of that. It's still nice to win it though, and losing to the mancs isn't nice at any level. The good news is that several of these players look like they will be knocking on the first team door in the near future, and many of them are still eligible for his competition next year, and in Sterling's case the year after that. Hopefully he'll have bigger fish to fry by then however, as the first team is desperately crying out for a player like him. We need him to develop quickly. It's easy to forget that these are just young lads learning the game. Some of the criticism I've read online of the team and of individuals is way over the top. You simply can't judge them the way you would judge the first team. Had the first team blown a lead like this and lost their composure and discipline, I'd be livid. When it's the kids, you just have to accept that it's part of the learning curve and hope they don't make the same mistakes in the future. For an hour they played very well and were clearly the better side. A bad five minute spell really cost them, and they then got caught with a sucker punch at the end. **** happens, it hurts, especially as it was United who beat us, but this is a talented group and many of them will have a bright future. The likes of Belford, Smith, Robinson, Silva, Sterling, Suso and Morgan will all be eligible for next year's youth cup, but the rest will just have to try and push on into the reserves and hopefully the first team reckoning. Star man is Adam Morgan. Two good finishes, a good all round display and a five fingered salute in front of the travelling mancs. Honourable mentions to Wisdom and Sterling too. Team: Belford; Flanagan, Sama, Wisdom, Smith; Roddan (McGiveron), Coady; Suso (Ngoo), Adorjan, Sterling; Morgan (Silva):
Good summary James I think you lost it a bit as well through losing your shape when you went down to 10 men. You had lots of discipline and were much better organised that us up until that point, but losing the man meant you weren't supporting each other as well. Our second goal was a good example of that - your left back was just left one on one with Cole, who skinned him easily, and there was no one picking up Morrison at the back. You do have to book a player for that. The rules say you can feint or stutter in the run up (a la Ronaldo) but you can't dummy the kick. Pogba needs to sort his attitude out in my opinion - he was just trying to look good by doing that and almost ended up screwing it up even after the dummy. Definitely agree. Yellow card for Coady for the kick out and ignore the handbags. Coady's bloody was purely cos Blackett's hand caught him when he was taking the ball off him. It's at 3:08 below: Judging by the attitudes of some of the players on both sides, I'd be surprised if that was the worst thing that was said that game... I disagree about the shove. Your defender was just standing there making no attempt to play or shield the ball. He was just wandering around like a zombie, didn't even appeal for a foul. As for the red card, if the keeper is the only covering player it is a straight red as it is still a clear goalscoring opportunity. Otherwise you could say Vidic shouldn't have been sent off in 2009 cos VDS was in position to possibly make a save. Pretty much like the fellow who got triple yellow carded at the WC? No one's gonna ask to be sent off! I think he only protested cos it was clear the Liverpool players had pointed it out to the ref. But yeah, he needs to improve his overall attitude imo. Just like I said before the game, better side with better organisation. You could tell for your two goals that no one in the Utd side knew who was supposed to be covering who, and your pass and move opened us up well. But I think after the red card our individual players shone more as your organisation faded. And in the end it was some brilliant play by Cole and Morrison that decided it. I think both clubs can be postive about the future...just need some more work on the discipline!
Both clubs can be positive about the future are you nuts. I watched the game,and apart from Morrison and the keeper(who won't make it anyway),the rest of the United u18s are dreadful.That dutch lad has heavy feet.He can't trap a bag of cement.I would be more worried if I were a Man United fan,riddled with debt and an extremely poor youth set-up.What would you expect when you have the son of Wilf McGuinness running it,like father like son.Fergies new flock of fledglings are like the last lot,the standard of Danny Pughless and Darron Garbage Gibson.
Give KPR a break. Dementia is a serious condition you know. And to be fair, Pugh is a good couple of years younger than the last decent player to come through the Liverpool youth system...
