Fergie demands Man Utd stand up and be counted

Sir Alex Ferguson was very gracious in defeat on Sunday, conceding that "Liverpool were the better team and I am not taking anything away from them at all. They deserved to win the game as it was a disappointing performance from us. We were not good enough." But the post-mortem at Old Trafford after a curiously spineless performance at the home of their greatest rivals will be troubling the Scot.

The central defensive partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic has been under the microscope for some time now, with most of the attention focussed on the England man. On Sunday they were at fault again, as Fernando Torres ghosted past Vidic and then shrugged off the attentions of Ferdinand for the first Liverpool goal, before the Serb picked up his third consecutive red card against the Merseysiders.

Vidic, his critics believe, is exposed by pacy strikers such as Torres, and with an ageing Ferdinand next to him the United defence can be caught napping. However, if the pair is having to work harder than in recent seasons, it surely points to a failure ahead of them, in a midfield department hampered by the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo and the failure of players such as Michael Carrick and Nani to grasp the opportunity offered by the Portuguese's departure to Real Madrid.

Antonio Valencia, the man earmarked to fill the Ronaldo-shaped hole on the wing, has had a cautious start to the season and has been showing some sign of flowering in recent games, troubling Insua with his pace on Sunday. But Nani "flatters to deceive", in the words of the Times' football writer Oliver Kay, and the Roy Keane role in the middle of the park is not being ably filled by Carrick (nor is Owen Hargreaves likely to return any time soon to take his place there).

Up front Wayne Rooney is probably one of few players to escape any censure, but alongside him Dimitar Berbatov continues to anger the Old Trafford faithful. Having arrived for £30.75m, the Bulgarian should have produced more than 17 goals in 57 matches, and while he is obviously a class act, a little less inspiration and a little more perspiration would help to persuade the crowd that his heart was in it when games begin to drift away from him. With Michael Owen's season likely to be spent more as a super-substitute than a starter, Berbatov needs to play for the team.

Of course, the backdrop to any criticism of Manchester United is that they sit in second place in the Premier league, and unbeaten on top of their Champions League group. They had won ten games and drawn one of the previous 11 before Sunday, and have lost no more league games than Arsenal or Chelsea. But the perception remains that no one is currently defining Man Utd in the way that players of Ryan Giggs and Ronaldo's stature did in recent years.

Meanwhile, Ferguson yesterday contacted the Football Association to admit to the charge of improper conduct brought against him over his remarks about referee Alan Wiley after the Manchester United-Sunderland game at Old Trafford on October 3. He faces up to a five-game ban and has asked for a personal hearing. ·