PRAVDA.COM

The first one is a cracker, bet you didn’t know we were currently in a period of success?

A good way to win?

"It's fantastic, periods of great success are always littered with occasions and last minute moments like that and it's great to have it back again. In the last 10 minutes I thought we were the team that were going to win it. We attacked them and, with Ryan Giggs starting to run at them and give them problems, I think we deserved it in the end.

Makeshift team

"John O'Shea had a knee in the ribs in the first half. Hopefully it's nothing serious, but we'll probably send him for an x-ray. It was a bit of problem for us at half-time with John O'Shea having to come off. There were two options; play 4-4-2 as we did to start with Wayne Rooney wide right, but then we lose a lot of Wayne's real threat; or play Wayne, Louis and Ruud up front and have three midfielders. We did that later on and that helped us. I think also with the makeshift midfield, it was important to have a good defensive base on which to operate. I thought the back four and the goalkeeper did very well. But the two centre-backs were immense today.

Tough Game

"The tensions and pressures on both the teams, the history between each other, the demand and expectation placed on both teams, always means it's going to be a tight game. In the first 15 minutes they kept getting lots of fouls for innocuous challenges and I thought 'It's going to be one of those days, we're going to lose 1-0', because Liverpool have done it before. That was a worry, but we got through that spell and after that I was quite confident. Winning is the name of the game at this club and in fairness to the players, they tried to win it.

Can Rio be a prolific goalscorer?

"There's no reason why he can't. Hopefully scoring again in this game will give him the confidence and encouragement to attack the ball as he did for the goal. It was a marvellous leap and a great header. He's 6ft 3in, with a big enough head and a good spring, there's no reason why he can't score regularly.

Praise for Evra

"He did some very good things. One or two things he'll need to pick up because the game is so quick here and you don't get rests in the English game. But, all in all, he had great willingness to get forward, a good left foot, he's quick, and can take players on. It gives a good dimension which Liverpool found difficult to cope with. I thought he and Kieran Richardson were a threat on that side of the pitch.

Vidic to get his chance

"I think that Vidic will probably be involved on Wednesday [Carling Cup semi final second leg against Blackburn]. I'll just have to have a look at the situation. He's doing much better, he's now needing a game. He's had three weeks training, but he hasn't played since November 22nd, I think, so he's had his training and hopefully can be involved.

Getting over derby-day disaster

"It definitely makes up for the disappointment of last week, there's joy today, but disappointment last week, but football can be like that."