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The prospect of playing teams like Liverpool in front of another sell out crowd here was one of the main factors that attracted me to managing this Club and today’s game should be another great occasion.
Our last Barclays Premier League match here was a fantastic afternoon and for pure entertainment it was the best game I’ve had the pleasure to oversee as a manager.
The 6-0 victory over a very strong Portsmouth side was one of those days when everything just clicked. It was especially pleasing when you consider that we did not arrive back into Manchester until late on the Friday afternoon from our UEFA Cup tie in Nicosia.
All of the goals were very different, with six different scorers getting in on the act too, but one player not on the score sheet that day certainly caught my eye.
Stephen Ireland was outstanding and turned in the kind of performance that rightly saw him win the first Thomas Cook Player of the Month award for the season. He has put in some fantastic performances and the recognition is just reward and a welcome boost for Stephen.
The coaching staff, while they do an incredible job, cannot take the credit for the condition he is in because he worked so hard during the summer and returned to pre-season with a real determination to show that he wanted to be part of what we are doing. He has worked exceptionally hard from day one and is reaping the benefits now as are we.
Elsewhere, midfielders Adam Clayton and Andrew Tutte collected the Reserve team and Academy Player of the Month Awards respectively, so congratulations to both players.
Back to first team matters and since the Portsmouth game we suffered a couple of setbacks. Firstly the loss on penalties at Brighton in the Carling Cup. We created enough chances to win a few games that night and it was very disappointing to lose out in that fashion.
Then at Wigan again, we were disappointed and more than a touch unfortunate with certain decisions. You can’t argue with the first goal, but once Wigan took the lead again after 35 minutes, they got everybody behind the ball and that was clearly their game plan.
The penalty obviously allowed them to defend what they had and it was more difficult for us because of the decisions that were made.
We have to make sure we are better when teams set up like that in future, and it is vital that we cause them more problems. We had a huge amount of possession in the game and passed the ball okay but without really being able to create those clear cut chances for us to capitalise on.
We had high hopes of going there and getting a positive result, although it wasn’t to be, but as I keep saying the games are coming thick and fast and we don’t dwell on games that have gone - we have to focus on the ones ahead of us.
That test today is a Liverpool side, who despite some people questioning how they’ve actually been playing, are still winning their games and after their Champions League victory in midweek, they are still unbeaten this season. Obviously we hope to change that here this afternoon.
The result against Manchester United and beating their local rivals last weekend has given them a real boost and put them on a high. So it may not be an ideal time to face them with their confidence soaring at the moment, not that there is ever a good time to play Liverpool.
From our point of view, we had a good European result on Thursday that puts us into Tuesday’s draw for the UEFA Cup group stages.
There are some good teams we can come up against in that competition but that victory and confidence from that leads us nicely into today’s game as we will aim to build on that and continue playing the attacking style of football we have shown already this season.
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