Liverpool 2, Manchester United 1: Exorcising ghosts can breed confidence

Sep 15 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Ryan Babel celebrates after scoring Liverpool's 4th goal against Marseille _320

THE record books will show it was worth three points. But for Rafael Benitez, exorcising the ghost of his team’s most bitter rivals could ultimately prove of considerably greater value.

By finally gaining their first league victory over Manchester United under the Spaniard’s tutelage at the ninth attempt, Liverpool didn’t merely ram a spoke in the wheels of the English and European champions.

Nor did they just send a statement of intent to their rest of the Premier League they are now capable of beating allcomers.

Most importantly, they transmitted a resounding message to themselves and the club’s supporters that they now possess the belief they can register a genuine championship challenge. Of course, nobody, least of all Benitez himself, will be carried away by one win that many in any case believe was long overdue.

But had Liverpool once again failed against United, it would prompted the same old questions, the same dismissive tone at the mere mention of the Anfield side as title winners and the same debate over whether Benitez can actually end a championship drought that stretches back to 1990.

Not this time. And that the victory came without the help of Fernando Torres and with only a small contribution from Steven Gerrard also banished the myth that Liverpool are completely reliant on their most high-profile duo.

Recent memories meant it would have been easy for home heads to go down once United debutant Dimitar Berbatov fashioned a third-minute opener for Carlos Tevez.

Instead, Liverpool responded with a high-octane performance of passion, determination and pressing during which they visibly grew in confidence and harried the visitors, missing only Cristiano Ronaldo, into submission.

In the build-up, Benitez had differed with Gerrard over the best way to tackle United. While the skipper spoke of showing the courage to go for the jugular, his manager chose to extol the virtues of remaining true to more traditional Benitez values of controlling the game and retaining cool heads.

The latter approach largely went out the window following Tevez’s opener.