SATURDAY
OPINIONS often carry more weight than facts in sport.
And derby day always triggers more opinions then you can shake Rafa Benitez’s neck at, but here are two simple, unadorned facts just for the hell of it.
Everton should have had a penalty after Jamie Carragher’s Judo flip on Joleon Lescott and Dirk Kuyt shouldn’t have been on the field to score the winning penalty for Liverpool.
But I’m stating the bleeding obvious a bit.
Yes, a draw was the only fair result but football and life are rarely fair. Ask Mark Cueto and Lewis Hamilton.
Anyway, here's a few observations on the derby;
* Joleon Lescott was the best player on the pitch. England can do one.
*Jamie Carragher is turning into one of those mouthy, arms held aloft in incredulity, ref-baiting ‘Chelsea style’ players he supposedly detests.
* If Phil Neville hadn’t hurdled Kuyt’s challenge he could have had two broken legs. But don’t worry Dirk Diggler says ‘TV made it look worse than it was’.
* In Steven Gerrard’s autobiography he eulogises for two pages about referee Mark Clattenburg and calls him, ‘one of the best refs around...top drawer...never influenced by the occasion.’
* Clattenburg went out of his way to shake Captain Fantastic’s hand when he was substituted.
* Clattenburg, the new Graham Poll, can say what he likes but after gazing into Stevie’s big, imploring eyes he pocketed his yellow and sent Tony Hibbert off.
*Carragher is such big mates with Clattenburg he avoided a booking despite doing a wanker sign in his face.
*I know he can’t pass to a blue shirt but regardless Phil Neville is a legend for that flying save. And he had a good game.
* Lee Carsley must have upset Moyes in some way not to get a game in midfield ahead of Jagielka.
And last but not least, this Bobby Dazzler;
* Rafa thought our play was poor compared to the slick, free-flowing champagne footy of the Mighty Reds. It’s going to win them the title! They definitely won’t finish third behind Arsenal and United.
PS - Let’s be positive. Vaughn, Cahill and Gravesen are all back for Thursday and we don’t have to have those witty RS fans back at Goodison for a while.
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Greg O'Keeffe
Notice how All the Scouse Liverpool Fans were already in Town When the Game Ended, Is the Anfield ticketing policy for liverpool's big games "No Scousers?"
I read a stat on saturday, When Everton have won the derby (since football was invented in 1992) at Goodison, There has been no Red Cards... hmmm
i can only assume gerrard's got some dirt on clattenberg after such a mind boggling display of disgusting cheating and dishonesty.
"Mark! Mark! He made me fall over the in the box. Put that yellow away, show him a red damn it!"
Your bias aside - are you seriously saying that Hibbert shouldn't have been sent off? I agree he brought out the yellow then changed his mind but if you are following the letter of the law then he was the last man and had to go. In the same manner that Kuyt should have gone.
Derby games show the true colours of those scouse-to-the-core Blues. You're as narrow minded and short-sighted as the Welsh are when it comes to rugby, rolling out your excuses and vitriol
Liverpool, South Africa, Raikkonen - Winners
Everton, England, Hamilton - Losers
Instead of moaning about Clattenburg, Moyes should be shaking the ref, Carragher, Kuyt, Gerrard and Benitez by the hand in thanks for them providing the perfect media smokescreen to cover the real Everton story on Saturday.
That game had 0.0 written all over it. Moyes’ tactics against a nondescript there-for-the-taking Liverpool were barely perceptible (any idea what his gameplan, his masterplan was?). We even had to rely on a corker from Hyppia for our poxy lead.
Regardless of Hibbert’s frozen rabbit stance in the centre-circle, the question must be how on earth a totally blunt Liverpool still managed to turn an Everton corner into a direct sprint for goal?
Fair enough, Everton had dominated the final half-hour of the first half and were looking to be in ascendancy in the early minutes of the second. But just what exactly were we dominating? The critical area up to the 18-yard line?
It was the dullest derby imaginable until the Hibbert-Gerrard moment and for all that Everton sorta controlled most of the territory (different from possession), Reina could have been leaning against the post reading El Pais.
Fine, Liverpool then sprawled all over us when we went down to 10. But they only had one extra man for god’s sake. It seemed like 20! Had Riise, Voronin thrice, Kuyt twice (not the pens), Sissoko and Babel taken all of their chances, Everton would have been staring down the barrel of an 8, 9 or 10-1 defeat. No, no, make that 10-3 coz we would surely have converted the pens that Clattenburg should have given (yawn).
Make no mistake, we’ve certainly got some justified gripes but, really, we lose sight of the bigger picture from Saturday at our peril.
A sheepish red mate said to me after the game “you can’t get rid of Moyes, after all he’s done for you,� (which is not what I’m advocating, in truth - just that he needs to wise-up and quickly). As I said to him: “If Houllier had won for us what he won for you we’d now have an Exec lounge named after him - so what did you get rid of him for?�
“Well, he’d taken us as far as he could and he was startin to lose the plot,� he replied. Hmmm.
By all means Davie, stand up for your rights regarding Clattenburg but don’t try and pull the wool either. And for god’s sake, don’t underestimate Larissa like you underestimated Kharkiv (twice!).
Hey Jamie, less of the Welsh-short-sightedness tag. You'd have to be Stevie Wonder not to have given The Toffees a penalty - and, equally, you'd have to be Stevie G to get Liverpool some tidy decisions. Clattenburg's a disgrace!
Why is it again that Evertonians are known in this parish as "the bitters"?
"we don’t have to have those witty RS fans back at Goodison for a while"
Comin from the fans chantin "murderers" and "gerrard the babys not yours" - but they're ok are they?
Booth: The truth hurts.