Andy Carroll finally shone and David de Gea had another nightmare in Liverpool's FA Cup fourth-round 2-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday with the former repaying his manager's faith and the latter being given the benefit of the doubt.
Liverpool striker Carroll, who has struggled since a big move from Newcastle United a year ago, did not find the net but used his physical prowess in the area as Daniel Agger headed in the first and then set up Dirk Kuyt for the late winner.
A contender last year for England's Euro 2012 squad, the 23-year-old Carroll has dropped well down the pecking order and has been in and out of the Liverpool side despite fellow forward Luis Suarez serving a long ban.
His team mates have had difficulty refining their passing game to accommodate a tall frontman but boss Kenny Dalglish thinks Liverpool may finally have cracked it.
"Everybody knows Andy's prowess in the air, we've tried our best to develop that further and we'll also work and be patient with him," Dalglish told ITV Sport.
"His commitment was superb today so as long as you've got the right attitude and the right commitment we've got a chance of working with it."
Goalkeeper De Gea arrived at United from Atletico Madrid in the close season after rave reviews but the Spaniard has not got to grips with the physicality of the Premier League and has recently been left out in favour of Anders Lindegaard.
The always nervous 21-year-old was crowded out in the box for Agger's header from a corner and could have made a better attempt as Kuyt thrashed the ball into his near post.
Alex Ferguson, who has struggled to recruit top goalkeepers over the last 25 years with only Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar being big successes, put the blame for the first goal on his defence and not his 1.93 metres keeper.
"We didn't do well. (There were) Too many defenders in and around the goalkeeper for the first one and the second one is just one of those lucky breaks you get," he said.
"I'm pleased with my players, they performed very well and dominated the game."
Comment 4 - 23 of 23
22# You obviously haven't been watching many games this season...during our injury crisis Carrick has been fantastic.
the voice of sanity is spot on carrick is a waste of space he can only square pass or backward most forward passes go to opponents. fergie needs a midfield general a decent defence a goalkeeper my be a striker a nice rich arab to pension him off . then united might become great again with this lot here comes demotion next season.
hahahahahahahahahahaha wait till luis is back wel will spank you lot agen in a fortnights time ynwa !!!!!!!!!
I can't understand why as a manager you would pick a goalkeeper who clearly is'nt good enough for the premier league and lacks confidence who has'nt been playing recently over a goalkeeper who has been playing pretty well. Just admit he was a bad buy and offload him. Fergie is too stubborn to admit when he is wrong.
Other than Liverpool, no club will pay 35 million for a striker just for the right attitude and commitment, with the added condition of needing to be patient with him and wishfully hope for further development.
"ferguson has struggled to recruit top goalkeepers.." But the top ones he did get oe Scmikes and Van der Sar both won the Euro top prize? Yahoo reporters get a grip!!
19.
United fans need to stop blaming the team 'en masse' as the problem lies squarely in centre midfield. That area of the team is pitiful and we need to buy a leader who has energy ability and scores goals. We have never replaced Keane and until we do then we will never find our true potential. Cleverly and Jones might be the answer but they are never fit. Scholes and Giggs are class but as was evident at Klanfield they tire after 70 minutes and then we are overrun with only the embarrassing and pathetic Carrick. Cheque book out Fergie, not much wrong after that and I'd back us to win the league again!
2 days left to buy some quality.....
stop blaming hernandez,what did welbeck do anyway.the first half was ruled by scholes not welbeck.
welbeck barely got to touch the ball and because of him man utd were like 10 men on field.
this exposes another weakness that without rooney or berbatov(no matter whats your opinion on him) on the field our strike force is also no good.
Postiives
The Ginger leg gasher managed to stay on the park
Little Rafael was man of the match.
LFC won thanks to Patrice "nutmeg" Evra and the Soft Gear
Negatives
Little Pea is no shooter
ok ok de gea has to go simple as that, ferg's has messed up again or rather his scouts has, never the less he gotta go, give lindegaard more games and get a top notch keeper in the summer and hope we last and win the league with what we've got for rest of season, without rooney, nani, ferdinand, vidic, jones, carrick these are all key players and technically we still kicked scousers off the park but goals count and we missed our chances and sooo missed rooney, maybe hernandez should have started who knows this is what fergie has to contend with, but still we need a strong defensive midfielder, a centre half for sure, and my oh my how bad do we need van de saar to come back out of retirement like scholes, who by the way i thought he had a great game today.....
get shot of de gea he is the worse keeper i have every seen what the hell was man utd thinking when they bought him time for him to go now and fergie please buty a new set of midfield players because the ones you have got now are sh/it
it realy does crack me up if a team does not perform well consistently the manager gets sacked am i right ? yes i believe i am .so why does the manager not criticize himself aftter a bad game FERGIE ok utd did play well but maybe if he had played berbatov he could of quite easily of won it so shouldnt fergie have held his hand up and said i should have played a different formation with the introduction of a couple of different players
After losing the game don't blame to players, Manager and his staff responsible for defeat
Even Gerrard and Dalglish admitted they didn't really deserve to win, but hey ho... that's football. De Gea was always going to be the weak link today and Liverfool capitalised on it... can't blame them for that.
Incey said it right... even with all the possession we didn't create enough clear chances and suffered for that. No point controlling the midfield if there is no penetration... Carrick has done well recently but today he went sideways too much, it was like watching Ray Wilkins again.
Congrats to Liverpool.... I hope you get knocked out in the next round but today you won and nothing anyone says here will change that.
Liverpool took their chances and won ...
Man U were doing OK until Scholes was replaced by Hernandez .. United then LOST the mid field and were then defending as Liverpool took the midfield ...
fergie should have replaced Giggs and left Scoles in the midfield ...
De Gea is having a hard time and nothing going right for him ... he needs to be farmed out for a season to let him get acclimatised to how hard it is in EPL .
I hate to say it but ..Hernandez is a hard worker and has skill BUT HE IS ABOUT 3FEET SHORT IN HEIGHT..he will NEVER overcome any defender who is 2-3 feet taller than he is ..
lets hope United manage to finish second this year and pray for a better year next season ..
GET RID OF DE GEA, honestly why did utd spend 19million on him he is simply awful they should have gone for the German Neuer or what ever his name is and they would have been better off keeping FOSTER as number 2 what the hell did Lindergaard do to get dropped DE GEA is the woest keeper since that Italian whose name I cant remember. GET RID
I think it may be a case of offloading Fergie if he thinks his team played well. Evans and Evra were poor, Carrick was marginally better than his customary dire and if United had a midfield that wasn't drawing a pension then there would be the opportunity to play Hernandez and Berbatov rather than the overrated Welbeck on his own and completely isolated. A poor squad and some pretty hopeless team selections have cost us dear this season and I don't think things will get better next season if Ferguson and the Glazers stay at OT.
Ferguson has been really great but he's losing it, for whatever reason and the club is beginning to suffer.
LOL Moanchester still giving it the lung bellows, after they were smashed into the back of the net. As predicted, Soft Gear had a bad back after and during the game, pulling them out of the onion bag.
Single file now Moanchester, on the double.... YNWA....LOL
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