Manchester United 2-1 Liverpool

Not the performance i was hoping for but definitely the result we needed. Without playing anywhere near our best we deserved to win as Liverpool put the effort in as usual without actually showing that much ability to play football. Fortunately United without playing well did show enough to put the moves together to control the game after the first twenty minutes. The result at Ewood park put the seal on a top Sunday afternoon.
United started with Nani and Valencia wide and Park in the middle once again with Carrick and Fletcher. I can see why he played Park in the middle, to combat the amount of work Liverpool get through in the middle of the park trying to stop you from playing. But to me it was at the expense of the quality in midfield that we sadly missed at times. I would have preferred Scholes or Giggs to give us that bit of class to keep the ball and find the passes that we didn't really manage all afternoon. That's no criticism of Park who had a fair game, but that wasn't a very impressive midfield performance for me. Fletcher gave his usual all action display and it's no coincidence that we missed him for the last three defeats to the dippers. But Carrick gave a performance that i can only call a mare. With Park and Fletcher as his two partners in midfield it was up to him to provide the creativity. All afternoon he was to slow in his head and at his feet. I have always thought he plays better with Scholes next to him as he doesn't seem to relish the responsibilty.
I thought the front three did quite well with Rooney absolutely outstanding and Valencia not far behind. Nani had a fair game and linked up well with Evra who was the pick of the defence. Once again, against Liverpool, our defence wasn't really at the top of it's game. They looked scared stiff of being exposed by Torres and it didn't take long for the first mistake that led to their opening goal. Carrick lost the ball to Torres, but i thought Ferdinand could have snuffed out the danger. Instead he hesitated and Torres ran through and gave the ball to Gerrard who put the return centre straight onto the unmarked Spaniards head and he beat Van Der Sar with his head, no problem at all. Yet again we had gifted our biggest enemies a gift of a goal. Thankfully the lead didn't last long as Valencia ran through on goal only to be brought down by Mascherano. The initial contact was made outside the box, but he still had hold of him in the box when Valencia finally went down. The dippers complained and Benitez is still whining today, but it was penalty as far as i'm concerened. I didn't think it was a sending off though as Ferguson apparently did, for me the offender has to be clearly the last man and i didn't think that was the case. Not that i thought it mattered, he was on a yellow so he would either have to stop playing his normal game, affecting their abilty to stop us playing or he continued to play his normal game and get a second yellow. He took the first option and didn't really have that much of an influence on the game. As one of the only three outfield players that would get near playing in a class team that was a pretty good result for us. It didn't do us much harm that Gerrard was hardly in it either. Torres tried a bit of gamesmanship by scuffing the penalty spot and maybe it worked because Rooney didn't take a great penalty but luckily for him and us Reina's save ran straight back into his path and he made no mistake second time around.
The chances were few and far between for the rest of the half but Park had one of them but could only head Valencia's great cross wide. So we went in at half time deservedly level but playing nowhere near as well as we had hoped.
We came out in the second half and started to control the contest without going up a gear as we had hoped. When the winner came it came courtesy of the only really quality move of the match which saw Neville overlap to give Fletcher a bit of time to pick out Park in the middle who arrived late to dive and head home. I have to give Vidic some credit after his past nightmares against Liverpool as he had a fine game yesterday and was the more reliable of the two centre halves. At this stage of the game we seemed to have control of the game as our defence seemed to have Torres shackled and Liverpool's midfield were incapable of creating anything. Still we didn't really look like getting a third. I would have brought Scholes and Giggs on earlier to try and bring the quality into the midfield that could create the chance to kill the game off. Instead by the time they did appear Liverpool were now trying to salvage something from the game and United were starting to hold on a bit. And almost at the death we really did nearly throw it away as Gerrard eventually got himself into the game and crossed into the box for Torres who missed an absolute sitter and even then the ball popped up to the head of Benayoun who could only nod it tamely into Van Der Sar's hands. So now we are top of the table and none of our opponents have games in hand. If we beat Chelsea at home we have an outstanding chance of making it four in a row and 19 of course.

Henry Winter's match report in the Teletgraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7493225/Manchester-United-2-Liverpool-1-match-report.html

The Teletgraph also reports that Rooney limped away from the stadium yesterday
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7494956/Wayne-Rooneys-limping-exit-from-Old-Trafford-raises-fitness-worries.html

Fergie sings the praises of Park
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7497170/Manchester-United-manager-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-hails-Ji-sung-Park-after-Liverpool-win.html

I have managed to watch Barca's last two games, though missed the victory over Barca, but Messi is on fire and in Catalonia they are comparing him to the very best. I would definitely say he is the best player in the world at the moment. It may well be that Rooney is closer to him now than Ronaldo is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/mar/22/leo-messi-barcelona-la-liga-spain

Anatole Kaletsky thinks the emegency economic measures taken by the government after the credit crunch have worked well. But he thinks we are now at the next stage where realistic plans for cuts will have to be made to continue the recovery.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article7070407.ece

The house of representatives passed the vital bill bringing expanding healthcare insurance giving Obama his first unalloyed triumph as president.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-house-approves-sweeping-healthcare-overhaul-1925167.html

Andrew Sullivan forsees a future president Cheney and blames Obama
http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2010/03/president-cheney-bush-obama

Brian Eno