This guy will never be my cup of tea. No matter how skilled he supposedly is
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I watched that match this morning. It was actually a good, tight contest. Until ben Mee got sent off...then Brentford's discipline disintegrated and eventually Villa's followed suit. Lots of pointless aggro and shameful diving. The ref got most of the calls right but by the end the players were making it impossible for him. 14 cards including both managers and former Bee Ollie Watkins taunting the home fans after scoring Villa's second (he claimed his celebration was directed at one abusive home fan. Whatever, I find celebration scandals incredibly boring).
Brentford missed two very good chances and Mee's tackle was, under today's interpretation of the rules, an obvious red. So they probably should drawn or even won but they were in a large part architects of their own destruction. But yes, several players on both sides will hopefully wake up tomorrow feeling pretty sheepish. If Maupay had a goal for every fight he started... Martinez doesn't come out looking any better after that tussle either. Childish.
Complacency from 'pool me thinks. Majority of the Liverpool faithful thought they only needed to turn up and they'd beat Utd. Someone even predicted 8-0.
No, that's the media talking.
Man Utd might be in a mess as a club, and very inconsistent, but that's not the same thing as a guaranteed 7-0. Klopp and the players would not have approached this game with arrogance; neither would any seasoned fans for whom decades of tight derbies provide ample warning not to expect anything. Likewise ETH and the Man Utd players would have known that this game was a derby too.
Both teams were fired up and, is so often the case in such derbies, the two sides seemingly cancelled each other out both in effort and sloppiness. I need to re-watch the match but, still, I don't see anything in this performance that worries me as a Liverpool fan. Still, naturally I was hoping for different result. Klopp will bemoan the fact that Liverpool weren't able to put any of their chances away. ETH and Man Utd fans will wonder where that level of fight is most weeks. It's worth pointing out this era of Man Utd are probably at their best when playing the underdog role in a match, hitting opponents on the break, as here. They didn't score, but were harder to break down.