Dimitar Berbatov became the first Manchester United player to score a hat-trick against Liverpool in more than sixty years as the Reds sealed a narrow win at Old Trafford. Berbatov scored United’s winner with five minutes to go to repay Sir Alex Ferguson’s impassioned defence of the £30 million striker.
Ferguson had earlier restored the Bulgarian to United’s forward line alongside Wayne Rooney after the midweek experiment with Javier Hernández. The Bulgarian’s four goals in all competitions coming into the match made the manager’s selection – and perhaps more importantly United’s formation – a little easier as the Reds momentarily closed to within a point of Chelsea.
With more than a hint of satisfaction, Ferguson heaped praise on Berbatov, who has now surely put his future at Old Trafford beyond all doubt.
“I was saying to myself it should have been ten but it ended up a 2-2. It was a travesty of a scoreline but a great result. They didn’t offer much, Edwin didn’t have a save to make, Scholes controlled midfield, Nani in particular was superb,” said Ferguson, who once again saw his side concede twice in the second half.
“The second goal was unexpected, it was surprise attempt and not many of those go in but fortunately it did today.
“There was a lot of criticism of him [Berbatov] last season and it happens when we buy a player for a lot of money. His performances in the pre-season tour were good but there’s never been any doubt about the quality of the man.”
As expected, with Antonio Valencia on the sidelines until at least February, Ryan Giggs started on the left with Nani switching to his favoured right flank. The Welshman had been suffering from the same bug that kept Rio Ferdinand on the sidelines for the match.
If United had lacked for creativity against Rangers during the week, then Berbatov and his strike partner set about setting the record straight, with the Reds starting brightly in front of a raucous Old Trafford.
But if Ferguson’s men were the only likely scorers then for much of the opening period United struggled to break down a sub-standard, if stubborn, Liverpool. Predictably Roy Hodgson’s outfit put faith in placing men behind the ball until circumstances force their hand.
Indeed, Ferguson’s side was equally happy to allow Liverpool’s five-man midfield to retain possession in their own half with the visitors rarely threatening to open United up during the first hour.
With space in open play at a premium United finally converted a set piece – the record from corners last season was laughably poor – with the Berbatov stealing ahead of Liverpool’s Fernando Torres to head home the opening goal. Reward for the Bulgarian’s endeavors this season and United’s overall dominance in the first half.
United should have doubled the lead before the break, with a strong shout for a penalty after Jamie Carragher handled and then Rooney firing just wide of Pepe Reina’s right-hand post.
Then, five minutes into the second period, Berbatov reacted first to Darren Fletcher’s deflected long-range only to stab a shot straight at Reina from eight yards out.
Berbatov then finally doubled United’s advantage, with the Bulgarian brilliantly finishing a sweeping United move to cap a fine individual performance. As Fletcher swept the ball left-to-right, Nani’s looping cross allowed Berbatov to control and fire home over his own head with half an hour to go. The big players should light up the grandest occasions and Berbatov is finally joining the elites in United’s squad.
If Liverpool’s limp performance had risked a rout then Jonny Evans gifted the visitors a way into the match, taking Torres’ legs from under him inside the area with Gerrard slotting home the spot kick. It was hardly the first time Evans has been at fault for United conceding this season. The Irishman’s talent is not in doubt but his application sometimes is.
Then moments later Liverpool equalised as Gerrard fired home a set-piece from just outside the area. This time Ferguson could lay the finger of blame elsewhere, with John O’Shea first hauling down Torres and then breaking the wall – albeit under the weight of Raul Meireles’ barge – as the visitors captain scored an equaliser that had looked so unlikely moments earlier.
If the comeback echoed United’s capitulation at both Fulham and Everton then Berbatov’s late winner ended any thought of potentially worrying series. It also, finally, wrote the Bulgarian his own piece of Old Trafford history.
Match facts
United – 4-4-2 – Van der Sar; Evra, Vidic, O’Shea, Evans; Giggs (Macheda 82), Nani (Gibson 88), Scholes, Fletcher; Berbatov (Anderson 88), Rooney.
Attendance: 75,213
Possession: United 54% – 46% Liverpool
Attempts: 16 – 7
On target: 1 – 1
Corners 6 – 1
Fouls: 5 – 10
Great win ! hope berba can keep this going !
Rooney looked crap, though. I don’t guess sleeping on the sofa is doing his fitness any good. He should check into a hotel. Oh, wait…
Good win, but need to sort out some of the back 4. Hopefully Rio will be back to take Evans’ place and I’d like to see Wes at right back. O’Shea not good enough against quality forwards, Nev too old, Rafael too young.
Rumour has it that the Roonster scores after the game and at least twice.
What a magnificent goal it was.
Whatever happened to the lad who scored a hat trick on debut? I read somewhere that Coleen said that Wayne used to “nutmeg” her five or six times a night, but now I guess she’s like United of last year: relying on own goal to make up the difference. I understand that she infinitely prefers his increasing use of headers to his shooting from distance – too many of his shots went wide of the target, apparently.
Your getting there Rob your definitely getting there
wierd how hes suddenly stopped hiding berbatov
Just hope Berba did not go to gals after the game.
As much as I love Berba and have always defended him, I think the Berba naysayers have been proven right to a certain extent. His perfomances this year are not just down to it finally coming good for him.
He did an interview in Bulgarian after this game and he was talking about during the summer he made himself fitter – running 6 miles a day and even doing weights.
I think this, coupled with his international retirement, has given him an extra 10% or so in games and added to higher confidence levels – this has resulted in fantastic performances like yesterday. His skill has never been in question but his fitness perhaps has.
Hopefully he can carry on this form all season and score some more important goals too. His creativity and skill could be the deciding factor in the big CL games.
Just need Rooney to catch some form now.
Does this mean United are going to play 442 for every big game at home from now on? And is Rooney going to have to start playing on the left again when we play 433?
You make some interesting observations. I, too, have been giving the ramifications of Berbatov’s improved performances some thought. As I’ve stated before, I believe that a big problem Sir Alex continues to have with his team selection is due to his having a stable of 4-4-2 strikers to go with a collection of 4-5-1 (4-3-3) midfielders. He currently has only two strikers that might be trusted to play up-front on their own; which striker will get dropped or played out of position in our upcoming match against Valencia? Or do we dare play in a 4-4-2 formation?
“having a stable of 4-4-2 strikers to go with a collection of 4-5-1 (4-3-3) midfielders.”
I think that just about sums it up. I agree I think the away trip to Valencia will go a long way to understanding what Fergie’s solution is.
If Ando hits some decent form and fitness and plays like the box-to-box player Fergie wants him to be, Fergie might play 442 even away from home. But can we afford then not to play our best passer, Scholes? It was noticeable when Ando came on that he’d dropped a few pounds from last year.
Were are all the Berbatov Haters now! I don’t seem to be able to find anyone of them again.
My shout out goes out to Berba, for a superb performance and i nominate goal No. 2 for goal of the season.
If Rooneys’ game doesn’t improve over the next week or two, I can see him being benched for a spell.
He was wank against the Verrrmin… at least by the standards we’ve come to expect from him.
Whether it’s match fitness, or that his head is elsewhere, (no pun here)… Ferguson won’t wait long for him to sort himself out.
benching him wont help him imo, play him against scunthorpe and hopefully he will get a few goals.i dont think he was too bad against liverpool, stil puts in a good shift
If it’s just a fitness/confidence thing, then fine… but if it’s his personal life that’s the problem, then fuck him… the team comes first.
I hate it when cunts like you come out of the woodwork all smug after the event. Yes his performances did warrant criticism on occasions when he was playing shite.
It looks like he’s turned a corner though. Good on him.
Who will Fergie replace Rooney with? Not for Hernandez, Macheda or Owen IMO.
to be fair though, at lot (well, mostly me) have said that
-berba is technically superior to rooney, in fact far superior – we are talking bergkamp levels of technique, something rooney could only dream of
-rooney is a thick cunt in footballing terms, so once the application burns out, he is average
-without rio our defence is shit and VDS proofed how crap he is at organising a wall again, evans has a lot to learn and fergus has fucked this up by not investing in a goally, VDS has no balls anymore
-rooney has be running on empty for months – i said he needed a month off, fags, booze, pissing in streets, hookers, fucking smelly chavy cunt,
basically, there is a limit to how much rooney can “bleed” for united and his nuclear levels of application can carry him – fergal is an utter cunt for not resting him
one penno for united and one tap info. england; a sorry return
no doubt the rooney brigage will be wanking over him because – he is played out of position, ronaldo and fergus ruined his game, he is not getting blown by colleen
stop making excuses for the scally cunt, he is shit and he needs t0 be dropped so in that respect Alf is totally right, drop the fat cunt
mate, any of them has to be better then the fat, nicotine pumped, sex starved wooney.
clearly rooney is not fit, he is burnt out to shit – any of them should play ahead of rooney
“VDS proofed how crap he is at organising a wall again”… this made me laugh… When Fletcher shits himself and moves out of the way… How the fuck is that VDSs, fault?
And the rest? Fuck it… not even worth the effort.
Alf, I always disagree with Danni when it comes to his criticisms of Van der Sar but if you look at a dead-on view of the positioning of the wall, it was atrociously organised and much too central.
Fletcher is at fault for moving out of the way of the ball but Van der Sar should have positioned the wall much more to Gerrard’s right. There was a huge gap between where Fletcher was and the corner of the goal. Even if Fletcher had stood still, if Gerrard had whipped the wall into the bottom corner, Liverpool would have scored anyway.
Sheesh… I don’t understand how you can criticise VDS placing of the wall… if Fletcher holds his spot, Gerrard DOESN’T score… simple.
Wondering what would have happened if Gerrard kicks the ball elsewhere than where he actually kicked it is to suggest exactly the kind of criticism that Danni is making… which IMO is nonsense.
He is one of the most experienced keepers of all time… and he’s there on the pitch… we’re not… I’ll put my faith in his judgement, that the wall was fine over your assessment, from your sofa, that it was out of line.
Gerrard hit the ball straight at the wall… Fletcher moved out of the way… I really don’t understand what else there is to say.
Alf, I saw a photo on Red Cafe taken from the same angle where Gerrard took the free kick:
http://www.redcafe.net/f6/who-hell-responsible-wall-309114/
How can you not criticise the positioning of the wall? It’s a fairly rudimentary thing to make sure the wall is lined up so that the keeper is covering one end and the wall is covering the other. Now look at that photo and check out that huge gap between Fletcher and van der Sar’s far post.
I’m not saying it’s all van der Sar’s fault that we conceded from the free kick but he is equally as culpable as Fletcher IMO.
Sheeshy… photographs can be deceiving, as the perspective isn’t always true.
That link you posted… scroll down to the bottom of that same page, and you’ll see the same free fick from a slightly different angle, but the perspective shows it looking very differently.
Down on the pitch, is probably even more different.
Like I said… I’ll put my faith in VDS.
Fuck… LOL…
I read further and it appears that image I mentioned was a photoshop job… cunt.
lol
horrible wall placement and VDS should know better. our defense is a worry. hopefully rio’s return will sort a few things out. but i really want fergie to drop o’shea and play rafael. i’d rather fuck up playing the kids (rafael, fabio, evans, smalling etc). at least they can learn