Liverpool v Chelsea:ALEX FERGUSON has expressed his confidence that Liverpool will try their hardest to derail Chelsea's championship ambitions tomorrow even though it could mean directing Manchester United towards the 19th league title that would establish them above the Merseysiders as the most successful league club in English football.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has injury concerns about several key players and admitted yesterday it would be difficult to pick up his players for tomorrow’s game at home to Chelsea after going out of the Europa League in a gruelling 120-minute match with Atletico Madrid on Thursday.
Ferguson, however, does not believe United’s arch-rivals will play with restraint and he cited the end of the 1994-95 season when Liverpool beat Blackburn Rovers on the final Sunday and the title went to Ewood Park only because his own team could not win at West Ham.
“I am confident and I have to be confident,” said Ferguson, whose team trail Chelsea by one point with two games to go and play at Sunderland tomorrow.
“Great clubs don’t throw their histories away. They don’t throw their traditions away for one game. In 1995 it was exactly the same. We depended and hoped on Liverpool producing and we got that from them. I remember Roy Evans [the then Liverpool manager] saying to me: ‘You have to earn the right to win the title’ and that stands today.
“I think Liverpool will do their best on Sunday. They have to, there is no doubt about that. They have been in 10 European finals and won 18 titles, so that’s a fantastic history. You don’t throw that away just because of one game. And do you think their fans want to go home saying their team capitulated and didn’t try?”
Ferguson, though, was dismayed Liverpool’s game against Atletico went to extra-time.
“We would have preferred them to play for 90 minutes and I don’t think English teams get the proper help when they are in Europe,” he said. “To have to play a Sunday lunchtime kick-off after a Thursday game, to me, is not fair and it happens time and time again.”
The sapping effects of Thursday’s game have also left doubts over a number of Benitez’s players, including Dirk Kuyt, Javier Mascherano, Yossi Benayoun and Glen Johnson.
The Liverpool manager described the mood at Anfield as “down” as they approach the end of what has been a dismal season for the pre-season title favourites.
“It’s Rafa’s job to lift his players,” Ferguson said.
“I’ve been there myself when we lost to Bayern Munich [in the Champions League quarter-final]. It was a difficult job to raise the players but you have to do it because that is your job. It took me a couple of days to get over it, of course, but you have to get over it. You cannot wallow in pity.”
Yet there remains an issue of fatigue for Liverpool’s players while Chelsea’s have had a blank week. “It was difficult to keep the intensity and tempo for the whole game and extra-time and it’s clear we will have to check on everyone,” Benitez said.
“We changed Benayoun and Mascherano because they were very tired. Kuyt had a calf problem but we had to play him for the whole game and [David] Ngog was on the bench but wasn’t 100 per cent to play. At the moment they are down but that is normal. Hopefully by Sunday they will be ready.”
Liverpool are seventh, with only a slender hope of overtaking Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur to qualify for the Champions League, but their goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, said the players were still motivated.
“People can think whatever they want. As a professional, if you are a proper professional, you will never, ever on your life play to lose or draw in any game,” Reina said. “It’s just not us. It’s a question of our pride. We will try to win and, if we don’t, it will be because we’re playing Chelsea, a tough team that is fighting for the championship, and we’re going into the game on the back of a disappointing night after playing 120 minutes.”
Wayne Rooney, named yesterday as the Football Writers’ Association player of the year to go with his Professional Footballers’ Association award, could be back from injury when United play at the Stadium of Light tomorrow. Rio Ferdinand, who has been suffering from a groin problem related to his back issues, also hopes to be involved in a match that kicks off once the Liverpool game is finished.
Chelsea end the season next weekend at home to Wigan Athletic while United take on Stoke City at Old Trafford.
“We hope it goes for one more game,” Ferguson said. “If we get a chance to win it on the last game, that’s exactly what we’d have wished for a few weeks back.”
Gary Neville, the United captain, has followed Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes in extending his career at Old Trafford with a new 12-month contract. Neville, the former England international, is then expected to retire at the end of the 2010-11 season.
“Certain players make careers out of determination and will and Gary has been one of those players,” Ferguson said. Neville played only one game between March 2007 and August 2008 because of injury. “When you are out of the game in your 30s for a year and a half, for most players it is impossible to come back to the level he is now,” Ferguson added.
