QUOTES AND EXCUSES

Last updated : 10 November 2003 By Editor
Houllier:

“We should have had that penalty, although I am not blaming
referee Graham Poll. He was probably seeing it from a
different angle, but I have now seen it on TV and it is
clear to me. At Old Trafford, I feel it would have been a
penalty.

“I do not like my players chasing referees, it means they
lose concentration. And he is not going to change his mind.
Mr. Poll obviously saw it differently.”

Houllier also managed to blame Liverpool’s midweek UEFA Cup
excursion for the defeat:

“I felt that because of the game and long journey home that
we would have some sort of dip in the match. We should have
made more use of the first half when we were on top. But
when we did dip, they scored twice, although I felt the
defence and goalkeeper could have done better to deal with
the first one. My only regret is that we had to play a very
difficult game in difficult conditions in Europe and then
had just two days to recover.

“Manchester United played their European game on Tuesday.”

As for THAT miss:

“I do not want to blame Emile. He had sacrificed himself,
battled for 90 minutes in Bucharest and it had been very
demanding and difficult for him. Maybe he was just a bit
tired at the end, even though I felt a draw was a fair
result.

“We did not deserve that, but then Everton suffered the same
way against Chelsea last week, it is such a fine line
between success and failure. But afterwards I told my lads
what I will tell everyone, and that is that we are
definitely going somewhere, definitely. Our game has changed
and I will not compromise with the game that we play.

“We go forward, we create chances, but we did not finish
properly and lacked a bit of spark after the Thursday match.
I still liked the response, we found a second wind and
created chances.”

Sir Alex Ferguson:

“They put everything into that first half, they were better
than us in that first half. It made it all very exciting and
it is a pleasure to be involved in these sort of games. They
played with a conviction that we did not match. We lacked
confidence for some reason, maybe because their good start
put us on the back foot.

“But in the second period we were more like our real selves,
we got 2-0 in front, but then Liverpool started playing well
again. It meant a nail biting finish. We were more than
hanging on at the end.

"It was a fantastic game, an incredible game - and you've
got to give full marks to every player on the pitch.

"It's a pleasure to be involved in these kind of games."

Ryan Giggs:

“We had to fight until the end. We know their fans demand
they keep going for 90 minutes and they could have had an
equaliser at the end, but it was a great save by Tim
(Howard).

“We didn't perform in the first half, we didn't keep the
ball enough, but we came back.”

Giggs was happy to start on the right yesterday:

“It gives me the opportunity to cut in more on my favoured
left foot. I was happy with the goals. It is always
important when the others play on Saturday and we're playing
on Sunday to get a result.”