ENGLAND NEED ROONEY MORE THAN ME

SIR ALEX FERGUSON insists England rely more on Wayne Rooney than Manchester United do.

And that means he is not fretting over whether the striker overcomes calf trouble - or a trip to the maternity ward for the birth of his child - to play at Anfield today.

The Manchester United boss said: "There's more expectation on Wayne with England than there is with us.

"England look at him as the No 1 striker. It seems to me they don't have a certain, definite partner with him.

"They talk about Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe, whereas here he's got Dimitar Berbatov. There's not the same expectation on him all the time."

Perhaps Ferguson has today's opponents in mind when he was speaking.

His opposite number, Rafa Benitez, certainly could not argue Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres have less burden at their clubs than their countries.

Both are doubtful for today, with Torres struggling with his thigh and Gerrard a groin problem.

Ferguson has a wealth of talent to call on, although the prospect of heading into what he calls a derby without Rooney is surely more unthinkable than the United boss suggested.

"I've not asked Wayne about the baby. It's not my baby," Fergie laughed when asked if the birth of Rooney's child may hamper his preparations.

"Wayne's coming along exactly on the right lines we expected.

"He's had some wonderful moments at the club already and he's got lots of enthusiasm to achieve more in the game. He was born with that. He has a natural gift of determination and ability. He's everything we expected when we signed him.

"He's added more goals to his game now and that's come with his maturity."

Ferguson knows victory today would all but end Liverpool's Premier League hopes.

That would represent ferocious revenge for the 4-1 Old Trafford mauling at the end of last season.

Ferguson added: "The main thing is we recovered from it. You don't dismiss a score like that but it's in the past.

"I didn't think it was a 4-1. Maybe Liverpool would argue with that but we got back on song straight away.

"We've been too busy to think about the Liverpool game until the last couple of days. I've not given them much thought.

"I'm just going to get my players to play to their form and not worry about how they play. Hopefully we'll do that."

One man desperate to make amends for the Old Trafford hammering is Nemanja Vidic, who was run ragged by Torres in March.

The Old Trafford boss knows today's game has been on the defender's mind.

VIDIC: "He is a warrior."

Fergie added: "Of course, Vidic will relish the challenge.

"He'd relish it against anyone because he's a warrior.

"He was born with determination and has played well against a lot of good players.

"I don't know if Torres and Gerrard will play. I've not tried to work it out.

"The players we use will have experience of this kind of game.

"It will be a new experience for someone like Antonio Valencia, but not the rest of our team.

"The players know the intensity needed.

"Maybe last year when we went there we had a lot of players who weren't 100 per cent fit and that showed in the match.

"A lot of players hadn't had enough game time.

"Now it's different and we look better."

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