United at Liverpool: A Lot to Shout About

 

Let's face it, it was predictable, following United's victory at Anfield on Sunday, that Liverpool fans and players alike would scratch around for something to moan about to deflect attention from their own side's shortcomings.  It's what they do.

 

What I didn't expect, however, was that they'd do United and Louis Van Gaal such a favour in the process.  The revelations that Liverpool players could hear United players shouting at each other in the dressing room at half-time were presumably intended to portray a sense of disharmony among the Reds.  In fact they did nothing of the sort. 

 

Among the many gripes sections of the United support have had against Van Gaal this season was the sense that too little of this kind of thing was going on.  Behind the concerns levelled at some of the methodical yawn-fests we've sat through this season has been a suspicion of a lack of passion both on the bench and on the pitch. 

 

Personally I've no problem with the manager sitting down during the match: there are different ways to manage a team and I'd prefer that to some of the clearly contrived histrionics on display from Jurgen Klopp on Sunday.

 

I know many of my colleagues disagree, though, and I certainly share their concerns about a sense of edginess on the pitch this season, not just in terms of the performances, but the impression that the players looked too inhibited to express themselves fully.  That they didn't, in their hearts of hearts, really want to be there.  Even, perhaps, that they didn't really care enough.

 

No one is going to assume that the one fairly unconvincing swallow on display at Anfield is going to make a glorious summer.  But at least we now know that the players care.  They're willing to row among themselves to put right the things we've been urging them to put right.  And they clearly believe that victory at Anfield is important, important enough to shout about.  Important not just to the fans, but to  them too.

 

So thank you Liverpool FC.  Thank you for being so woefully inept as to allow our own mediocre performance to result in three points.  But thank you even more for letting us know our players care.  Over to you Louis to put this gift from an unexpected source to good use.