RAFAEL BENITEZ and Alex Ferguson shared only a brief handshake at Old Trafford but the Liverpool manager believes the impact of their encounter will linger at Manchester United.
While Rio Ferdinand claimed Saturday’s emphatic defeat would remove any complacency from the champions, Benitez insisted Liverpool’s resurgent form could take United to the wire in their pursuit of a record-equalling 18th league title.
Ferguson refused to share his thoughts on United’s humbling with Sky television after the game, apparently in protest at kicking off at 12.45pm at the end of a Champions League week. His team captain, however, sought to accentuate the positives as United shipped four league goals at Old Trafford for the first time since 1992 and lost a 12-game winning run at home in the Premier League in spectacular fashion.
“Losing any game is disappointing, but losing to your big rivals is even worse and the scoreline compounds that,” said Ferdinand. “But we have to turn this into a positive. This game will have torn out any subconscious complacency.”
The victory concluded a momentous week for Liverpool who, having recorded a 5-0 aggregate win over Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night, registered four goals against the champions. Liverpool remain four points adrift of United having played a game more but Benitez believes current form can sustain their challenge until the season’s end.
“At least now we are in a position where we can try and put them under pressure if we continue to win games,” he said. “The mentality of our club is to win, to win everything and I think United have the same mentality. So how can you win? I think in modern football the money makes a massive difference and you could see that in their substitutes. Tell me the value of these players? The money is a massive difference and if you have these [resources] sometimes it’s easier. They have four or five players on their own who can change games and we have one or two. If you cannot spend big money on players you have to work hard as a team. This is the mentality we have now.”
Benitez denied there is “bad blood” with Ferguson following his detailed attack on the United manager in January, and suggested he has irritated the Scot by returning Liverpool to title contention first and foremost. “I don’t have any problems with him. I respect him, I think he is a great manager but I have to defend my club,” said the Spaniard, following his 100th league win in 181 games as Liverpool manager and his first at Old Trafford. “I was calm and I am calm . . . Hopefully he will see Liverpool as a new contender. That will be good.”
Benitez made no grand boasts about this season’s title following Liverpool’s biggest win at Old Trafford since November 1936.
“The problem is we have dropped a lot of very important points at home,” said Javier Mascherano, the Argentine who made amends for last season’s red card at Old Trafford with a dominant midfield display. “We have spoken about this. When you lose points at Anfield to Hull and Man City and other teams like that then you have to be disappointed, but even more so now that we have gone to Old Trafford and won so well. All we can do now is keep going. There are still nine games to go and we need to win every single one to have a chance of catching United.
“I don’t know if we can win the league. We don’t need to think about the title race right now, we just need to keep this form going. It would be wrong of us to start talking about being in the title race again. United still have a good lead over us.”
Guardian Service
