This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has fired up the biggest fixture in the English calendar by effectively accusing Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United of deliberately 'shouting loudest' to try to influence referees.
Dalglish, who is set to give £35million striker Andy Carroll his debut, drew first blood in the mind games with his old enemy Ferguson by last night claiming: 'Sometimes you think the ones who
shout loudest get the more beneficial decisions, and that would be totally unfair.'
United have been at the centre ofcontroversy all week. Wayne Rooney was widely condemned after escaping punishment for an elbow into the head of Wigan's James McCarthy last Saturday.
And Ferguson has been hit with an Football Association misconduct charge after remarks about referee Martin Atkinson following United's defeat at Chelsea on Tuesday night.
To add to the pressure on the league leaders, Ferguson has reminded his players how the club
threw away a 12-point advantage over Arsenal in the title race in 1998. Dalglish, still waiting to hear
that owner John W Henry has given him the manager's job on a permanent basis, has had several
previous clashes with Ferguson, a fellow Glaswegian, and once famously said people would get
more sense out of his own baby daughter.
In his first game after he replaced Roy Hodgson in the Liverpool hot seat in January, Dalglish lost an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford to a disputed penalty in the first minute.
And he clearly does not want his side to fall victim to debatable decisions again.
Dalglish said: 'I was made aware of the Respect campaign to referees when I came back in. It's something I think we've adhered to.
'Referees make mistakes, it's difficult for them not to. But we make mistakes as well. If we adhere to the campaign, though, I just hope we are not the ones to suffer.'
Liverpool are facing Rooney today because referee Mark Clattenburg did not send him off for the incident at Wigan.
Ferguson acted quickly to prevent Rooney from getting retrospective punishment by claiming the media would 'try to electrocute' his striker.
And he again went public on Tuesday night when he said he 'feared the worst' when Atkinson
took charge of the Chelsea game. He has since been hit by an FA misconduct charge, something he is challenging.
Dalglish indicated Ferguson's selective criticism of officials is forgetting that Clattenburg's leniency
towards Rooney means he is able to play at Anfield.
The Liverpool manager said: 'Everybody thinks they are hard-done-by with refereeing decisions at times, but sometimes you get benefits from other decisions
'We had an incident at Wolves when the lady official gave a decision that proved to be correct. She
was left out of games after that even though she did nothing wrong. Somebody else gets publicised
during the week and what happens to them? They just continue.
'We'll try our best to retain our dignity and respect for referees but we also would like to think they can give us respect by trying to go along with the guidelines.'
He also dismissed Ferguson's touchline histrionics, claiming: 'It's not your personality that gets you trophies, it's your brain and the quality of players you have playing for you.'
This is a huge game for United after their second Premier League defeat of the season at Stamford
Bridge when they could have gone seven points clear.
Ferguson warned his players: 'Back in 1998, we were 12 points clear of Arsenal and we threw that
away. If you don't have momentum at this part of the season, you are going to struggle to win the
league. If you lose momentum, it is very difficult.'
Although Dalglish has won only four of 23 games against Ferguson, a period that includes spells at Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle, Rooney thinks the 'King Kenny' factor makes a difficult
job for United even harder.
He said: 'I feel it's the hardest game of the season to go to Anfield.
'Liverpool have gone through a difficult 12 months but Kenny Dalglish coming in has got the
fans right behind them. We need to be at our best to win.'
Dalglish is finally ready to give Carroll his debut after a thigh injury that has so far ruled him out since he signed from Newcastle on transfer deadline day.
Glen Johnson is likely to revert to right-back because of an injury to Martin Kelly while Ryan Giggs
is in line to make a record 607th league appearance for United at some stage. Chris Smalling and
Wes Brown are likely to form a centre-half pairing, with Nemanja Vidic (suspension) and Rio Ferdinand (injury) both ruled out.
Source: Mail on Sunday
This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the views of Liverpool Football Club.
This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.
Tagged: dalglish , kenny dalglish , manchester united