Viewing Thread:
"The Worthington Cup Final Thread"

It's always difficult to predict the score of a cup final, certainly Liverpool have not had a great season by any means, their fans will be the first to tell you that.

However Man U vs Liverpool has always been one game where form goes out the window and 'pride' and 'hate' come into it. United on the other hand have had a mixed season of woeful results and some excellent victories.

Therefore it's all to play for.

When United played against Juve recently Keane played alongside Rio at the heart of United's defence and did it very well, now im not sure what the situation is with Wes Brown, if he returns im sure fergie will re-instate him at the back and Keano back in midfield, However there a few doubts over Silvestre, Scholes and Giggs, so its difficult to predict a line also I don't think he should leave out Phil Neville, he may not be a talented defender but he's great at tackling and has done a great job in midfield this season.

Possible line up:

Barthez

G.Neville
Rio
Keane/Brown
O'Shea

Beckham
Butt
P.Neville/Keane
Veron

Scholes/Solkjaer
Van Nistlerooy

Dangermen: Veron & RVN

The problem I see with this line up is the midfield, with Keane moving to the defence, the midfield is left exposed and with Liverpool having a fairly strong midfield in Gerrad, Murphy and Hamman, Nicky Butt, P.Neville and Veron will have to be on top of their game, I think the emphasis here is if Seba plays well or not, he has been brilliant at times this season and at other times he hasn't.

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Liverpool should field the same team that finished the game against Auxerre, which looked much more balanced than recent weeks. Micheal Owen
has been dire beyond belief this season, and I think he should have been replaced with Baros at times, but Houllier has kept his faith with him and he's always dangerous with his ability to run through defences. Im not sure what the goal keeping situation is at Anfield at the moment, if Dudek starts, then he'll want to make ammends for the game against United earlier this season and I think I heard something about Henchoz being a doubt for the game, which will be a blow to Liverpool.

Dudek/Kirkland

Caragher
Henchoz
Hyppia
Traore

Hamman
Gerrad
Murphy
Smicer

Heskey
Owen

Dangermen: Murphy & Owen

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Im certainly looking forward to the final even if it is the 'Worthless' a win will mean a trophy, some much needed confidence and taking the mick outta opposition supporters for a few weeks :D

My Prediction: 2-1 United.

Your views please.

The only reason that Owne scored liverpolls second was simply that United made a sub on the 70 minute...Brown 4 Solsjaer...lack of cover at the back due to the rest of the team pushing for the equaliser, 3 men up, 3 men back.. Basikly Smicers effort and Owens goal wouldnt have even had come about if it wernt for this change!? Fergie should have thought that adding a nother forward to a packed defence line would work is stupid..if anything he should have brought the more attackimng minded O shea on for Silvestre, taken Giggs off for Sosljaer and put beckham down the middle ( His crooses were poor the whole game, something that are players thrive on, expert delevier that simply wernt there. Veron was allways looking for the killer ball but never found it, Scholes had some spells, mostly quite tho, defence were preety sund, and Dudek did not have a blinder as so many people seem to think, all of the Man Utd shots were feeble even the one by Veron, Dudek made it look Dramatic... Van Nistelrooy was clear through on goal but couldnt get the ball out from his feet, he also created two openings and only 1 forced a proper save from Dudek, Giggs had afeeble attempt in the first half, Scholes one of the line, Van Nistelrooys toepoke in the first half, a whisker away from the goal.... the list goes on. Liverpoll created very little, other then Gerrrards shot which he should have buried, and two defencive errors on our part ( Silvestre, Beckham not closing the play + plus Barthez being a midjet!? led to a disapointing defeat that i cant beleive happened, admitly we shouldnt have beatin Liverpool in the league but still, we dominated the play, the chances, sots, corners, bloody everthing, yet we got beat 2-0? Can some 1 tell me where the irony is...or the iron so i can whack my self other the f***^ng head with it?!!!!!!!

Ant wrote:
> ...They won the match, which means they're already in the UEFA Cup.
> And anyway, we're gonna win that too this year. {:)

Very true, I love how in a bad season we will still come away with 2 trophys.

Ant wrote:
> ...They won the match, which means they're already in the UEFA Cup.


Oh yeah...

I am well-and-truly gutted....

I was expecting us to play... WELL, and come out victorious at the end of it... And I was almost certain Fergie would've played with 2 out-and-out-stirkers, with Scholes in midfield, for a Cup Final!

But Silvestre should've been subbed early on. He was clearly still having injury problems. And I'm not too-sure about Giggs either. Was he really fit-enough to play??

And well done to Henchoz for NOT using your hand to stop the ball crossing the line!


The thing I hate most about this match is how all the Liverpool players will now be getting over-praised! Dudek, especially, for making so "average" saves that Liverpool fans and the media seem to belive were 'spectacular' and 'great'!!
And Michael Owen will now become the best striker in the Premiership for the rest of th season, just because Barthez didn't even attempt to close-him-down, and because Rio Ferdinand decided to show us all, once again, why £30m really was a lot of money, WASTED on him!!
They'll love Henchoz, too, for just getting in the way and JUST putting the ball over his own bar!

Insane Bartender wrote:
> I'm surprised Liverpool didn't apply for thr Intertoto Cup myself.
>
> They may yet need the option...

...They won the match, which means they're already in the UEFA Cup. And anyway, we're gonna win that too this year. {:)

Great performance I thought, especially since we played on Thursday night. Dudek was fantastic but we had some chances too, and if Gerrard and Smicer had scored their chances it could easily have been 4-0.

Very strong defensively and a big victory, nice one lads!

I'm surprised Liverpool didn't apply for thr Intertoto Cup myself.

They may yet need the option...

It is hard to break down a 9 man defence though. I knew if Liverpool scored first and United couldn't score in the following 5 minutes we'd lose as i knew what tactics Houllier would employ. Still it worked for them and fair play, however at least we'll be in the champions league next season :)

Liverpool defended well, but if that was the FA CUP final Man Utd would have wanted it more. Man Utd dominated possesion untill 35 mins when Gerrard scored a fluke goal ( maybe if Barthez wasnt a midget he might have stopped it) Liverpool grew in confidence right up too half time. Comftable 1.0 at half time. Second half man-utd won the midfield battle, coudlnt break down Liverpools defence and when they did couldnt finsih convincly. Liverpool subsequently looked more threating then they really where when attacking as 90% of the united squad where pushing for the equaliser that never came. Own broke away due too a poor mistake from Silvestre. Game set match.. Owens scores. Consoltaion for when we didnt desreve to beat Liverpool in the league, due to the howler from Dudek... even so we should have won this one and anyone who knows anything about football should feel the same way. Were not gonna win the league but i think as long as we dont draw Real Madrid in the 1/4 finals we allways stand a chance in the Champions league, something that Arsenal wont see for a good, 2-3 years,that i am certain. Well played Liverpool

p.s Heskeys poo
p.p.s when baros came on i got a lil worried?!

Who here went to the game?
The scousers are great and the day was made better by a liverpool win
i brought one of them hooter things so i'm taking that into college to cause havoc

There's only one harold shipman
only one horold shipman
The scousers say thanks
For killing the mancs
Walking in a shipman wonderland

VenomByte wrote:

> I'd say one probably took a deflection off Beckham ;)

LOL,

I must say though typcal United...all the mouth before the game, and no performance during...take 'em to the knackers yard and turn 'e,m into glue