Rooney wants Liverpool FC to do them a favour...

[Barnesy_10]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article7108996.ece

 

Wayne Rooney has called on Liverpool to do Manchester United an unlikely favour in the title race run-in.

 

The forward believes that the Merseyside club must live up to their illustrious reputation by doing everything in their power to defeat Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday and dent the West London club’s hopes of winning the Barclays Premier League.

 

United head into this weekend’s fixtures a point behind Chelsea, knowing that they need their title rivals to drop points in at least one of their two remaining fixtures — away to Liverpool and at home to Wigan Athletic on Sunday week — if they are to claim an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League title.

 

The run-in has been given added spice because United are bidding to become England’s most successful title-winning club, overtaking Liverpool in the process, as they look to be crowned champions for a nineteenth time.

 

 

Rooney’s plea will not go unnoticed at Anfield, where club officials remain indignant at the memory of Liverpool’s professional integrity being questioned the last time they were faced with a situation in which a win in a decisive fixture could hand the title to United, their fiercest rivals.

 

In 1995, United needed Liverpool to beat Blackburn Rovers on the final day of the season to be in with a chance of winning the league. Despite many in football questioning their desire to come up with a victory given that it would benefit Sir Alex Ferguson’s team, Liverpool won the match only for United to fail to do likewise away to West Ham United, wasting the chance that their adversaries had handed to them.

 

Rooney, a boyhood Everton fan who is anything but popular on the Kop, has now appealed to the Anfield club to take the battle to Chelsea, imploring them to play for their own pride and a place in the Europa League next season.

 

“I’m enjoying the title race,” Rooney, the United and England striker, said. “We need Chelsea to slip up now so hopefully Liverpool or Wigan can do us a favour.

 

“Liverpool are a proud club with a lot of history and I’m sure they’ll want to win that game as they’re fighting for the Europa League. We just have to try and win our last two games. If Liverpool or Wigan can help us out, we’ll be happy.”

 

Rafael Benítez has made it clear that he is targeting nothing other than victory when Chelsea visit Anfield. The Liverpool manager knows that only three points will give his team any chance of snatching fourth place and maintaining their status as a Champions League club.

 

The Spaniard’s assertion will not come as a surprise to Frank Lampard, who is expecting a tough examination of Chelsea’s title credentials on Sunday. The midfield player stressed that he believes all matches at Anfield are difficult, regardless of the time of season at which they are played and what is at stake.

 

“There is no way they will think about anything else other than winning the game, regardless of whether it helps them get in the Champions League or not,” Lampard said.

 

“If we don’t turn up at Anfield, play slow and without the same intensity that we did against Stoke City, then we will lose, it is simple as that.

 

“There is no chance 11 Liverpool players will go out and consider United winning the title on what happens in that game. They will go out to win. They will want to be professional.

 

“They will give everything, there is no doubt about that. It is a difficult match but it’s not a case of us worrying. Everyone is aware that when they go to Liverpool it will be difficult, whatever stage of the season it is.

 

“Win two games and we win the league; if we don’t, we may have to rely on goal difference — it depends on Manchester United’s results.”

[Cheesecake]

and so it starts...

[John am Rhein]

we should go all out attack - nothing's more likely to guarantee a Chelsea win that that

[melia]

How many of our players care which of Utd or Chelsea win the league this year?

How many of our players are bothered that a Utd win will put them ahead of us as the most successful club side?

How many of our players want their team to finish as high as we possibly can?

How many of our players want to take home a win bonus on Sunday?

 

I don't think there's any likelihood that one of our players will go out not trying for a win.

[Stevie H]

i do like the assumption in all this that they're going to win at sunderland.

 

we beat chelsea in the earlier game, then united lose 1-0 in sunderland with the goal pinging in off a f***ing beach ball. textbook.

[Red Kent]

i do like the assumption in all this that they're going to win at sunderland.

 

we beat chelsea in the earlier game, then united lose 1-0 in sunderland with the goal pinging in off a f***ing beach ball. textbook.

 

They have been there, read the book, saw the film. They'll win both their remaining two games.

[Stevie H]

They have been there, read the book, saw the film. They'll win both their remaining two games.

not like you to be so sunnily optimistic kev?

[fyds]

i do like the assumption in all this that they're going to win at sunderland.

 

we beat chelsea in the earlier game, then united lose 1-0 in sunderland with the goal pinging in off Steve Bruce's big fat f***ing beach ball head. textbook.

 

Fixed that for you Stevie.

[Redkop]

The forward believes that the Merseyside club must live up to their illustrious reputation by doing everything in their power to defeat Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday and dent the West London club’s hopes of winning the Barclays Premier League.

It's like what the old axiom says.... The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football players.

[Malcolm X]

Here's how it should pan out. The score is 0-0 deep into injury time. The ball falls to Lampard outside the area. His shot hits Carra in the chest, the ball goes in the air and when it is coming down Carra tries to head it clear but instead heads it straight onto his boot. The ball ricochet's off Carra's boot onto Soto's head which in turn deflects it to Insua.

 

Insua tries to clear but instead hits it towards Johnson who inadvertently heads it to Reina's feet. The ball deflects off Reina's boot into the net.

 

The goal is credited to Lampard who goes wheeling away in celebration.

[Gomez]

Yeah, we are going to get a whole load of lackies questioning our integrity.

 

However, the correct thing for us to do is what is best for Liverpool FC, not man u or chelsea, and that will most likely be (depending on the outcome of Saturday's matches) to blood youngsters for our future.

[CaptainXabi]

The goal is credited to Lampard who goes wheeling away in celebration...and points to the sky.

[Spike]

If Mcarthy didn't roll Wolves over we wouldn't be in this situation. Ergo, if we roll over then we're just restoring the status quo.

 

They can talk about our integrity they want to but when diving, cheating, pressuring the ref and the authorities is their maxim, integrity means not a jot.

 

f*** em.

[mally]

concede, concede

concede, concede, concede

[Stevie H]

If Mcarthy didn't roll Wolves over we wouldn't be in this situation. Ergo, if we roll over then we're just restoring the status quo.

 

They can talk about our integrity they want to but when diving, cheating, pressuring the ref and the authorities is their maxim, integrity means not a jot.

 

f*** em.

 

good bit of context here from that perspective. ferguson's got plenty of previous on this front.

 

 

Will Rafael Benítez follow Sir Alex Ferguson’s example?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matt_dickinson/article7108963.ece

 

We do not know if Rafael Benítez has voted yet in the Liverpool fans’ poll that asks, with a straight face, “should we field a weakened team on Sunday?” But we can be sure that Sir Alex Ferguson will regard it as the most outrageous supporter survey since the Manchester Evening News asked its readers “should Fergie be sacked?” shortly before he embarked upon the 1995-96 season that brought them the Double.

 

Field a weakened side against Chelsea? Concede the game and effectively gift the Barclays Premier League title to Carlo Ancelotti’s team? What about integrity and fair competition?

 

These will be Ferguson’s thoughts. The intriguing question is whether he will dare to air them before Sunday and risk the charge of the most appalling hypocrisy.

 

Liverpool’s line-up on Sunday can be decided by only one man, and Benítez may want his strongest possible team if he is looking over his shoulder at Everton and/or truly believing that fourth place, and qualification to the Champions League, is still achievable. With each Premier League place worth at least £750,000, he might weigh up the income (although it is questionable whether he will be around to spend it).

 

But it is equally plausible that he could wake up on Sunday morning with very little to play for in the domestic campaign — and perhaps with the Europa League final to save his players for.

 

Should Everton fail to win away to Stoke City on Saturday, Liverpool will be guaranteed a top-seven finish and entry into Europe. And if Tottenham Hotspur beat Bolton Wanderers at White Hart Lane, also on Saturday, then the idea of fourth would seem out of reach except to the greatest optimist. Liverpool would be stuck.

 

In that case, giving a break to a few players against Chelsea would be quite normal practice and might pass with little comment except for the fact that, this being a potential championship-deciding afternoon, it will cause a mighty hullabaloo about integrity and fairness with the added spice that United are attempting to overtake Liverpool and win a record nineteenth English championship.

 

There would be plenty to discuss on the subject, including the history of weakened teams, which goes back beyond 1971, when Bill Shankly’s Liverpool were fined £7,500, and farther still than 1970, when Don Revie’s Leeds United were docked £5,000 for fielding reserves.

 

This season it flared up as a contentious issue when Wolverhampton Wanderers were handed a suspended £25,000 fine for making ten changes against United, the first time a penalty had been imposed for such a breach for 17 years. The fine was an attempt by the Premier League to make a statement about how much weakening was acceptable, but an unconvincing one. In the era of rotation, it remains a harder case to prove. As for the moral argument, that horse long since bolted.

 

Ferguson, for his own sound reasons, was among those who let open the stable doors by deciding that what is best for United outweighs all other considerations. When other clubs have hoped United might give a game their full attention, he has not always been able to oblige. Some Manchester City fans still have not forgiven him for the team he picked back in May 2001, that included Michael Stewart, Luke Chadwick and Ronnie Wallwork, for the visit of Derby County. “We saw their team and thought we had a little chance,” Jim Smith, the Derby manager, said.

 

He was proved right. Derby celebrated the most unlikely victory at the home of the champions, securing their top-flight status at City’s expense, and the joking between Ferguson and Smith at the final whistle still rankles among blue die-hards.

 

Then there was the resting by Ferguson of senior players including Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy at home to West Bromwich Albion towards the end of the 2004-05 season, and the improbable draw at Old Trafford that helped Bryan Robson’s side to safety.

 

Most notoriously, Neil Warnock will never shed the bitterness he feels having seen Ferguson rest more than half his first team against West Ham United on the final day of the 2006-07 season. Carlos Tévez scored and Sheffield United were relegated.

 

Ferguson was looking after United in every case, and will make no apologies for that. Few neutrals condemned him for it. No doubt he will be equally understanding when questions about Benítez, integrity and team selection are put to him before Sunday.