Benitez backs Morientes to boost Reds

Rafael Benitez has admitted it will take Fernando Morientes time to settle into life in the Premiership following his 6.3-million-pound move from Real Madrid to Liverpool.

Morientes made his first appearance for the Merseyside club in the 1-0 home defeat against Manchester United that ended his remarkable run of scoring on each of his professional debuts.

The Spaniard found chances hard to come by and was substituted after 75 minutes, clearly showing the effects of having spent most of the season on the bench at the Bernabeu Stadium.

Benitez, the Liverpool manager was impressed by his new signing's initial contribution but admitted the player was lacking match fitness and had some way to go before he would be at his best.

"It was difficult in his first game but he never stopped trying," Benitez said.

"It was his first game and he needs to get fit. He said he was very tired when he came off. But he knows now how he must play in the Premiership and will get better with more training."

Benitez is expected to step up his search for a new keeper after Jerzy Dudek's mistake gifted United's Wayne Rooney the matchwinner.

The manager lost out to Chelsea in the race to sign highly-rated Leeds youngster Scott Carson and has made no secret of the fact he wants to bring in another keeper, particularly with regular number one Chris Kirkland once again sidelined with a recurrence of a back injury.

"I haven't seen the goal on television although I could see it was a mistake," he said.

"The fact is goalkeeper mistakes are more important than other player's mistakes. But we had time to get back in the game. But when you play in important games a mistake can prove very expensive."

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is also believed to be on the lookout for a new goalkeeper as neither Roy Carroll or Tim Howard have really convinced this season.

Carroll is out of contract in the summer and has so far refused to sign a new contract on the terms United have offered.

But he strengthened his negotiating position with a crucial late save from Liverpool's Jamie Carragher which ensured that United, playing with ten men following Wes Brown's 65th-minute sending-off, held out to register a club record seventh consecutive clean sheet.

Ferguson was delighted with an admirably controlled performance from his side.

"We passed the ball well and that took a lot of the steam out of Liverpool," the Scot said. "When it went to ten men, obviously there was going to be a bit of an onslaught and we had to survive that and we did."

Rio Ferdinand was missing after failing a late fitness test but Ferguson said the England centreback deserved much of the credit for stabilising a defence that had developed a tendency to leak soft goals while he was out for eight months as a result of a ban imposed for missing a doping test.

"The defence has been absolutely magnificent," Ferguson said. "Since Rio Ferdinand came back (at the end of September) we have regained our composure and we have carried that on even though he has not been playing the last few games."

Ferguson underlined the significance of the win by comparing his side's performance at Anfield favourably to those of Arsenal, who lost, and Chelsea, who only won with the help of refereeing errors which denied Liverpool two clear penalties.

"Arsenal have been here, Chelsea have been here but I would have thought our performance was the best of the three," Ferguson said.