Some reaction to today’s win for Manchester United over Liverpool. All the following quotes were given to Sky Sports.
Rafael Benítez: “In the first half we didn't have a lot of problems and then we conceded a goal. Against a good team like United that is always a big problem," he told Sky Sports. When you see the players working as hard as they work, you cannot blame them, if you make a mistake, you make a mistake. From my point of view it is a pity when you concede.”
“Sometimes you don't have an opportunity when you talk about a player in front of the keeper. We were defending well but we couldn't create a lot of clear chances, if you want to win you need to score and sometimes they score first.
“I need to think about the next game, when you are at the top, bottom or middle of the table you need to think about the next three points. It is clear, if you want to have possibilities you need to start winning games. We will change things, but the team is strong enough – but after we concede we need to keep going.”
Alex Ferguson: “I think there is a growing belief. When you start the season you have the hope, desire and intention to do well and so far the players have not let us down. There is great confidence among them and some young players have started to develop very well so we're looking at Man United to step forward and have a real go this year. We've had consistency and we're doing very well when you consider that we've not had a few key players, like Gabriel Heinze and Mikael Silvestre, fully fit. We also had Cristiano missing through illness so we've got a few players to get back into the squad and get some football behind them.
“We knew we couldn't afford to lose the big one again and the players responded to that. It was an excellent performance. I thought Michael Carrick was fantastic, Paul Scholes gave us composure, Ryan Giggs with his experience and the work-rate of Darren Fletcher. I thought our midfield was a big influence for us today.
“I'm so pleased for him (Scholes), his 500th game for the club and he scores against our biggest rivals. It was great for him.
“I would not dismiss Liverpool. They have a good run-in and there will be a freshness about them in the second half of the season because of the way Rafa has been ringing the changes, but I have to say, I am looking at ourselves at the moment. I want my side to step forward and make sure we have a real go this year.”
Rio Ferdinand: “This fixture has been good to me in the last few
years, I've scored a few goals and managed to win a few games. I don't
really think about scoring, I think about trying to keep clean sheets
so today was a bonus. Liverpool have been playing 4-3-3 but today they
played one up front with people off the front man and they have been
very difficult to break down and it was the same again. It was a good
move for Scholesy's goal and then we consolidated with my goal.”
Paul Scholes: “I got one in midweek and I managed to get another one today, but as long as the team win it doesn't really matter who scores the goals. It's rare to get that much space in the box. Liverpool normally play so defensively but today for some reason I managed to sneak in and get the goal.
“I think we have played better over the last few weeks and I thought we were quite comfortable today, we never looked like conceding a goal and looked dangerous going forward as well.”