From Liverpoolfc.tv I wrote: "...Whatever happens, it's just one game. A very important game, which will set some kind of marker and invoke a lot of passion and pride, but not a cup final, and not a title decider. And some things in football are not fundamentally changed by the result of one game in the first half of the season."
I never, ever have a good feeling when we play Manchester United. And with a crucial European away game preceding this encounter while United rested their team, my hopes weren't exactly strengthened. There was five days between the matches, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but clearly it wasn't the ideal preparation either. But that's football life, and you have to live with it.
Zonal marking was blamed for the goal, in typical and predictable fashion, but United's man-marking at set-pieces was far more farcical. The difference was arguably the bounce of the ball and the rub of the green. (And of course, Chelsea's set-piece man-marking against Arsenal was a joke.)
However, the one weakness with zonal marking (and every system has a weakness) is that anything done with real invention can cause uncertainty on the second phase of play. Liverpool were set up perfectly for the ball into the box, as they always are, but were slow in reacting to the pull-back outside the box. To make matters worse, Rooney's shot was going wide, but also straight at Carlos Tevez.
It seems that it doesn't matter how well Liverpool play in this fixture, it seems will not be the Reds' day.
A lot of it is making your own luck, and United are certainly good enough to do that, but where they find that extra 20% of good fortune in these games I'll never know. United somehow cleared two efforts off the line, and scraped a late first-half goal with their first effort of the match.
Liverpool were progressing nicely before the last two league games, but it remains the same story when it comes to meeting the top English teams, and United in particular.
Liverpool simply have to score the first goal against United soon, because every time Ferguson's men either earn it or steal it, the challenge becomes that much harder. The one time the Reds did just this was in the FA Cup; and they won.
But this defeat does not change what has been a very good first half of the season in the league, even if there remain areas for improvement. The aim now is to get a victory or two at places like Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and the Emirates Stadium.
With Torres' pace in the side, not to mention the emerging Ryan Babel, it's much more likely than in recent seasons. This is a crucial point: it's only really now that this team can do what all the top teams can, namely counter-attack effectively. So there are legitimate grounds for optimism.
I never get too upset when Liverpool play fairly well and lose against the run of play. It wasn't vintage in terms of free-flowing football, but once United scored it was never going to be easy carving out chances. The Reds cannot be faulted for effort, and for looking for a way through –– the players kept hammering away, looking to keep the tempo high and the pressure on, but passes had to be millimetre perfect to find a way through United's massed ranks; while dribbling with the ball often resulted in beating the first man but then getting smothered out by the second and/or third.
And unfortunately, the final ball wasn't good enough on many occasions, while the shots, when space was created, were a little hurried or wayward. But it says a lot about the balance of the game when United's best players were their central defensive pairing. Their football was certainly no better than the Reds', but of course, they had the space to pass and run into; that's the beauty of the counter-attack. Even then, they rarely worried the Reds.
The United goal meant there was then zero space for Torres to run into. The Spaniard looked a little leggy after all his recent outings, and his goal touch deserted him with a close-range header. The sharpness in the final third was just a little lacking from all Liverpool players, but of course, had either of those two chances cleared off the line had a fraction more pace on them, everyone gets a big pep-up from taking the lead.
Crucially, I also feel that this is the strongest United side since 1999, and their best squad perhaps in all the time Ferguson has been there. I don't enjoy saying that, but I feel it's true all the same. He still has some of the important elements in place from the '90s, and he bought Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand and the underrated Saha before BenÃtez was even at Liverpool. And this summer United spent bigger in net terms than Liverpool to reinforce their title-winning side, which was already more expensively assembled.
I've said it over the years, but for me the crucial time was between 2002 and 2004, when Ferguson was strengthening with the real aforementioned quality, and Houllier (who had previously bought fairly well) got it horribly wrong. Looking back, that was always going to be a hard point to recover from. I think BenÃtez has bought at least as well as Ferguson since 2004, but those two preceding years set the Reds back a long way. Arsene Wenger also made some of his best signings, like Fabregas, Clichy, Van Persie and Toure in those years.
If BenÃtez had inherited players like Ronaldo and Rooney instead of Cheyrou, Diouf and Diao, it could, and almost certainly would, have been so different. And while Rooney was never a realistic target, due to the fee and his Evertonian roots, Anelka, who could have been a Liverpool player full-time, is far, far closer to him than Diouf ever was.
And of course, Liverpool could do nothing to stop losing Michael Owen in the summer of 2004, and it's only now, in 2007, that Rafa has been able to ally pace to reliable finishing ability, something that is so important to have in at least one striker., but also so costly Meanwhile, one of Houllier's few good signings between 2002-2004, Harry Kewell, is only now rebuilding his career after three years of injury woe. He's looking fit, but there's more sharpness to come.
So Liverpool are playing catch-up, and to my mind, are catching up. It's just never an overnight process, and one made more difficult by the confidence boost United had last year, that helped them increase their belief, as well as the good players they also added in the summer. It took BenÃtez until this summer to be able to buy a £15m+ player, but Ferguson's squad is full of them: Rooney, Hargreaves, Carrick, Ferdinand, Anderson, Nani, and in time, Tevez. And while Cristiano Ronaldo, at £13m, is not in that list, BenÃtez has only signed one single player who cost more than the Portuguese winger.
Think about this: once United had signed most of those top-class players back in 2003 and 2004, it took two-to-three years for the blend to strike gold.
The progress of that team was very steady, but almost imperceptible at times. In 2005 and 2006, United looked a long way away from a title-winning side. But it clicked into place last season, without many new additions, and I can honestly see Liverpool getting closer to such a point. And I think that most Liverpool fans, in moments of quiet reflection once the sting of the United result has worn off, will feel the same.
This Liverpool team is in essence a work in progress from 2005 onwards; so started after Ferguson began building his current side. Only Xabi Alonso predates that as a BenÃtez signing. And while a nucleus of inherited names remain, players like Alonso, Torres, Reina, Babel, Agger, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Kuyt, Arbeloa and Crouch are just some of those the manager has looked to in order to add new elements or dimensions. And for the most part, that's been the case.
The arrival of Torres and Babel this summer have clearly taken Liverpool's attacking game to a new level. We've all seen that –– it's beyond doubt. And while he hasn't quite found his best level of consistency, the quick feet and goals of Benayoun has also helped towards that end. The bright spots are there.
Mascherano, another 2007 arrival, was a terrier in midfield, and had an excellent game, but he's never going to carve teams open with his passing, which is good but not especially penetrative.
Against the best teams, the composure, passing and tempo-setting of Alonso and Agger are so important. The form of other players mean they haven't been missed too much most weeks, but they are key to Liverpool allying an attempt at playing at pace (which was true against United) with that little extra bit of class. Against the very best teams, they are key players.
Against teams with massed ranks at Anfield –– as were United from their goal onwards –– Agger is vitally important. He is the man who can step seamlessly from the defence into midfield and beyond, to give that injection of momentum.
The brightest spark against United was Ryan Babel. He did brilliantly again as a sub. It's just a shame that, given he's still adapting, it needed the frenetic pace of the game to die down a little before he could enter the fray. (Not that the pace dropped much.)
Having said that, I think Babel proved that he can now handle the most bustling of Premiership encounters, and I think BenÃtez will feel more at ease throwing him in from the start in such games. He looks a confidence player, in that he doesn't seem extroverted and arrogant, and now he's feeling good about himself he looks an inspired acquisition. He and Torres can easily be Liverpool's Rooney and Ronaldo.
The Reds are closer to a title-winning team than many people realise. But of course, there are three other special contenders who just won't go away.
This man always makes me feel better 
