2001 Analysis (FA Charity Shield)

Member Name: a-true-ben

Product:	FA Charity Shield
Date:	13/08/01 (1105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: We won it!, great game of football for the neutral

Disadvantages: United always complaining about referees, they'll probably win the League too, and Fowler might leave

The Charity Shield match is the traditional start to the new football season, played between the new Premiership Champions (Manchester United) and the winners of the F.A. Cup. Although officially only a pre-season friendly, there is a trophy at stake and it’s often regarded as an indicator of things to come in the new season. As the name implies, there is also a ‘charity’ element, there has been some recent controversy over this, but the event normally raises about £1M for ‘good causes’, making it one of the largest money-raising sporting events in the country.

I’m not usually a fan of writing about specific incidents such as this on Dooyoo, because the information will become out of date relatively soon. Although the preceding paragraph does cover my 75 words, Dooyoo says “if you want to give your comments on the game” do it here, so hopefully the following analysis will be useful and I’ll try to draw predictions for the season, so at least the information should last a year!

The 2001 Charity Shield was held yesterday (Sunday 12th August) but I wanted to delay writing this until I had seen the whole match, shown in the early hours of this morning on BBC1. For the first time, it was held in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, which has also held the Worthington and F.A. Cup Finals while Wembley is being redeveloped, and under a roof. The teams competing were Manchester United and Liverpool, the referee was Andy D’Urso and the match took place in front of approximately 70,000 spectators.

I’ll begin by listing the teams (substitutes used in brackets) and giving the players marks out of ten, then go on to describe the game more fully.

Manchester United

Barthez 7
Irwin 7
G Neville 6
Stam 6
Silvestre 6
Beckham 8
Keane 7
Butt 6 (Yorke 6)
Giggs 7
Scholes 7
V. Nistelrooy 8

Liverpool

Westerveld 9
Bab
bel 7
Hyypia 8
Henchoz 6
Riise 7 (Carragher N/R)
Barmby 6 (Biscan 6)
McAllister 7
Hamann 7
Murphy 7 (Berger 6)
Owen 8
Heskey 7

The match got off to an explosive start when, just a minute in, Keane brought down Murphy in the area and a penalty was awarded. McAllister calmly sent Barthez the wrong way, giving Liverpool an early lead and injecting some life in to the game.

Minutes later, Liverpool could’ve had another as Silvestre brought Owen down on the line, but D’Urso gave a free kick just outside the area, which McAllister fired into the wall. The early pressure came from Liverpool though and on 16 minutes Owen turned Neville to double the lead.

United’s first real chance came down the right, when Riise brought down Keane for a free kick. Beckham fired in a cross, but Keane’s header was well saved by Westerveld. This set up a spell of United pressure and an appeal was made against Henchoz for hands (TV replays showed the ball hit his thigh so any handball wasn’t intentional).

Down the other end, Liverpool were still pressing. Barthez missed a corner, forcing Irwin to clear off the line from the, until then, quiet Barmby. The first half’s last notable event though was a cracking long-range shot from Keane which, with Westerveld for once beaten, cannoned off the cross bar.

After the break, Sir Alex Ferguson had obviously had a good ‘talk’ to his team, because it was a far more efficient United that emerged. Within minutes van Nistelrooy, the new £19M signing, had two chances, the first shot over the bar and the second well charged down by Westerveld. Clever United interplay also set up Scholes, but he blasted wide.

The breakthrough wasn’t long coming – a string of passes culminated in Giggs sending Nistelrooy through and, with Westerveld stranded on the floor, he slotted home. With United back in the match, they k
ept the pressure on – a good curling shot from Beckham went just wide before Scholes forced another good save.

Within minutes the ball was down the other end; Owen passed to Heskey who set through Hamann, but the rare second half Liverpool attack was broken down. United continued to dominate and attack, but they seemed to lack the urgency they had in the first few minutes.

Pressure was obviously getting to them though, as they increasingly began to dispute D’Urso’s decisions. A fifty-fifty shirt tugging incident between Berger and Keane resulted in a free kick, seemingly in United’s favour, but Barthez’s protests (presumably calling for advantage to have been played) led to a reversal of the decision.

As the clock ticked down, Biscan led a superb Liverpool counter-attack, but again United were soon forcing Westerveld into more saves. An almost suicidal pass from Neville gave Liverpool another chance, before yet more controversy at the other end. This time a shot did hit Henchoz on the arm, but he was falling at the time, and D’Urso refused to award a penalty. In the last minute, Barthez (who’d frequently forayed as far as the half way line) even came up for a corner (although he stopped outside the 18-yard box – someone should tell him if he wants to go up to do it properly!) but it wasn’t enough.

Ultimately, Liverpool dominated the first half and United the second. Although United had more possession and chances, they were tellingly only able to get seven of their 19 shots on target. Liverpool, meanwhile, took their early chances and held on, with man of the match Westerveld in fine form.

Final result: Manchester United 1-2 Liverpool.

Liverpool’s fourth trophy of the calendar year (after the Worthington, F.A. and UEFA cup treble they won last season) – no wonder the Millennium Stadium has been dubbed ‘Anfield 2’. But what can we take o
ut of the game?

Firstly, there’s been a lot of focus on the referee. Alex Ferguson suggested he might still have had anti-United feelings from when he was harangued by players two years ago in a game against Middlesbrough.

Personally, I thought that D’Urso’s decisions were, while not always perfect, at least consistent. He certainly didn’t produce one of the incompetent performances we’ve seen in the past (hopefully now confined to the past with professional referees starting this season, including D’Urso).

Perhaps he should have given the second penalty claim against Henchoz (although I believe it was an accidental handball, he seems to have a habit of falling) but I think Silvestre’s early trip on Owen was more clear cut (D’Urso ruled it was a foul and camera replays demonstrated it was on the line, so it should have been a penalty).

He gave three booking, all for late tackles (Scholes on Hamann, Murphy on Beckham and Hamann on Butt). He did break up the flow of the game by awarding several three kicks when he could have played advantage, which seems to be the main United complaint, but he did this to Liverpool too. The only time there was a clear advantage was when a United player was through on goal, but he’d passed the last defender after the whistle had blown anyway. Personally if I’d been referee, I’d have booked a couple of United players for their protests. Statistics show a high majority of referee’s decisions go United’s way, so they were probably in shock when the man in black didn’t act like their 12th player!

As for the teams, there were a number of interesting points. What surprised me most of all was that neither manager made many changes – they were allowed to use five of their seven substitutes and I expected them to do this, particularly United who were losing. Perhaps it indicates they have their formations sorted
? Who knows?

The United team was pretty much as expected. Veron was on international duty and Andy Cole was at home with his wife (who’d just broken her collarbone). The new formation of Scholes behind one out-and-out striker was expected, but changed to a traditional 4-4-2 when Yorke replaced Butt and Scholes slotted back into midfield.

Ferguson says he’ll continue to use Scholes as a withdrawn striker, and I hope so, because I dropped Yorke from my fantasy football team to include Scholes (Yorke had been playing well with Nistelrooy and I hoped he might return to form so I snapped him up for a bargain price, before deciding Scholes might get more games with the new formation!). I was surprised the Solskjaer wasn’t introduced though, as his ‘super-sub’ performances often create late winners.

Nistelrooy looked a very good player. £19M may be a high fee, but that’s the crazy money in football nowadays. If he stays fit he’ll do well. With £28M Veron in midfield too, United look the team to beat once more, although if I was Alex Ferguson I’d have been looking for another central defender to partner Stam.

The big surprise in the Liverpool side was vice-captain Robbie Fowler not even making the 18-man squad. This has reignited speculation about his future, as he stalls on new contract negotiations. Press statements from both Fowler and Houllier make it clear that he was dropped, not injured. It’ll be a shame if Liverpool can’t keep hold of him, because he’s one of the best strikers around, but he’s had trouble holding his place against Heskey and an in-form Owen.

Other than that, little major news in the Liverpool camp. Redknapp also missed the squad and Steven Gerrard was injured. The one new signing (John Arne Riise) debuted at left back and looked impressive before tiring. This might raise questions about Jamie Carragher’s long-term future, but bo
th players are young and versatile and look set to figure in Houllier’s plans.

I wouldn’t read too much into the result (Liverpool’s third successive win against United) as it’s the fourth time in a row Manchester United have lost the Charity Shield and it hasn’t harmed their league performance. In fact, it may have jolted them from complacency (Beckham had spoken before hand at how they’d like to go all season unbeaten! Losing their first competitive match not such a good start then…) As a Liverpool fan I found the result extremely satisfying, but I still predict Man Utd will win the Premiership with Liverpool fighting it out with Arsenal, Leeds and Chelsea for the remaining two Champions League spots. All in all though, it was still a great game of football to start the season.

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