United close ranks

Manchester United imposed a media blackout in the wake of their 3-1 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is already fighting an FA charge over his comments about referee Martin Atkinson in the wake of their 2-1 defeat at Chelsea, refused to attend the post-match press conference.

No other members of the United coaching staff were made available, while none of the players involved gave interviews, not even to in-house TV station MUTV.

The only comments came via a club spokesman, who confirmed Nani will be assessed on Monday before the extent of his injury is known.

The Portugal winger departed the field on a stretcher and in tears after being caught high on the leg by a nasty lunge from Jamie Carragher,who could have seen red but escaped with a yellow from referee Phil Dowd.

The only other comment came from injured centre-back Rio Ferdinand, who was not even at Anfield, but offered an opinion via Twitter.

"Bad result today no excuses," stated the England skipper.

Source: Sky Sports
Date Published: 7 March 2011

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Last 7 games vs. Liverpool: 3 wins and 4 defeats. Every time we've won, Fletcher has started; every time we've lost he hasn't

- birchy

Fletcher and O'Shea should have started, Ferguson got it wrong. Rooney has looked better recently but I think we should start with Hernandez and Berbatov.

- Shaun

Thought Fletcher being on the bench at the start was a mistake. We really needed him to help shield our defense given that it was our 2nd string one. Though I heard somewhere, I think on Twitter, that he didn't start the game due to illness...

- Abner

Individually we might not have been that bad, but setup in a 4-4-2 was a huge mistake. We were too open, too attacking and left a weakened backline exposed. Scholes in a midfield two, with Smalling and Wes at the back was a terrible error of judement by SAF. However, it was a one off, against a team that played as if their season rested on it, and i dont expect it to influence the rest of our season. Two weeks until our next league game and its important we try and get Rio, Vidic, Nani, Park and Valencia back for the run-in and we put a good run together and clinch number 19. Quick note on the Carragher challenge. It was every bit as bad as what Rooney did last weekend, and if Nani escapes without serious injury he's a very lucky boy. It'll be interesting to see if the press go into overdrive like they did last week with Rooney.

- twoc2002