Here are my ratings for the Liverpool cup clash. For the Liverpool ratings, click here to be directed to Anfield Asylum, and Bromantic's take on the Liverpool performance.

A score of 1 being the lowest (Sebastian Savic standard), 10 being the highest (Messi like) A score of 6 will be standard, 7 is solid, a very good game will get an 8, 9 is good for outstanding and 10 is unplayable. 10's will be very rare. Not only will they have to play the game of their life, but it will usually come against a team of good quality or in a big match (FInals, championship deciding game's etc.)

David De Gea - A really poor game. His last game was against Blackburn, where he screwed up a cross, mis-reading the flight of the ball. Here, he was too pre-occupied with Carroll and ended up failing to make a proper attempt at saving the header from Agger. He just wasn't set. Flapped at several crosses after that, failed to take a firm command of his area all afternoon. Could have done better with the 2nd goal too in my humble opinion. Made some decent saves, but nothing that any profesional keeper would have had too many troubles with. 3/10

Rafael - My man of the match. Showed a real desire and hunger to win the ball, something that was lacking slightly from others, especially in a game against Liverpool. Won many 50-50's including one against Steven Gerrard where he wasn't favourite to win the ball. Steamed up the right hand side to win the ball and put in a cross for our equaliser. 8/10

Jonny Evans & Chris Smalling - I have decided to mark these two together because I can't really separate them, and I don't want to end up repeating myself. Kept Carroll quiet for the majority of the game, but done De Gea no favours for the first goal. Gave him no protection. I liked Smalling's composure on the ball, but it has been two weeks in a row where his slips has almost cost a goal. Evans keeps proving the doubters wrong. Nothing either could do for the second goal IMO - 6.5/10

Patrice Evra - Performed well all afternoon apart from the second goal. Should have tucked in which would have left him in a perfect position to intercept Carroll's flick on. A really sloppy mistake that undone all of our hard work. 5.5/10

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Just bitter disappointment. Really angry. Not a happy bunny. First off, congratulations to Liverpool. They won the game, they took their chances. They put the pressure on De Gea.

David De Gea..... Looked like Bambi in headlights whenever a ball was lofted towards him. Especially when the area was crowded. (Corners for instance, free kicks too). Not a great trait for a keeper. I have been a defender of him as well. I still believe he can be a top keeper, but he now needs to really do some hard graft. He becomes nervous when he has to put his body on the line. Anders Lindegaard is certainly our number one form here on out in the League.

Valencia hit the post early on with a fantastic effort. He and Rafael had agreat first half down the right. The winger quietened a little in the second however.

Liverpool's first goal came from a corner halfway through the first half. Liverpool had the nous to station three players amongst the young Spanish keeper, and Agger headed the ball beyond the floundering keeper as he pushed Andy Carroll away from him. The Danes header was a free one, so the blame cannot be asserted 100% to the keeper. Just a lot of it.

From there on our midfield dominated for a large portion of the match. Giggs, Carrick and Scholes was linking up very well and the tenacious Park worked as hard as ever. It was the South Korean who scored the equaliser. Rafael battled well down the right hand side and his cross at the byline was perfect for the late arriving Park, who finished well.

Into the second half and we still were monopolising possession. Liverpool weren't hurting us. Then Scholes went off and the game changed. Bellamy came on for Liverpool as well as Adam. The tables had turned. They bossed the game.

And sure enough, the goal came for the 'Pool. A Reina goal kick was flicked on by the largely in-effective Carroll, Evra failed to cut it out and Kuyt ran in behind him to power home the winner.

Game over!

I think we played well for a large portion of the match. But we just didn't do enough. I hate to criticize the gaffer, but..... It is a cup tie against Liverpool, at Anfield. Did he have to play De Gea? As soon as I saw his name I got real worried.

And taking Scholes off. We lost our edge in midfield. We were really playing well with the extra man and that vanished and we were punished.

Still, hindsight is a wonderful thing....

Vent any feelings you have here. Better here than taking it out on your loved ones... Avoid the criminal charges I guess :) We will see Liverpool (With Suarez no less) At Anfield next month. Lets stick it to them!

Apparently the FA decided that Manchester United versus Manchester City was so much fun that they figured a draw in Round 4 with another huge rival would be fantastic: United will travel to Anfield face Liverpool in the next round as their reward for their defeat of City today. Luis Suarez will be suspended for the match as part of his 8-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra. United have won the competition more than any other club (11 times) but they have not won it since 2004 -- when they defeated Millwall 3-0 at Milennium Stadium. All Round 4 ties will be played on January 28,29, and 30. Here is the full Round 4 draw:

* Liverpool vs Manchester United

* Brighton & Hove Albion or Wrexham vs Newcastle United

* Sunderland AFC vs Middlesbrough

* Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall vs Southampton

* Hull City vs Crawley Town

* Milton Keynes Dons or Queens Park Rangers vs Chelsea FC

* West Bromwich Albion vs Norwich City

* Blackpool vs Sheffield Wednesday

* Arsenal or Leeds United vs Aston Villa

* Stevenage vs Notts County

* Watford vs Tottenham Hotspur

* Derby County vs Stoke City

* Everton FC vs Fulham FC

* Macclesfield Town or Bolton Wanderers vs Swansea City

* Sheffield United vs Birmingham City or Wolverhampton Wanderers

* Nottingham Forest or Leiscester City vs Swindon Town

A soft landing is not in the works for Manchester United after their recent two successive league defeats: a FA Cup tie at the Etihad Stadium versus leaders Manchester City awaits them. However, for that match, the 'noisy neighbours' will have some key players unavailable. The African Cup of Nations competition begins on January 21 and Ivory Coast has exercised their right to call in players for the international competition two weeks prior to it's start. Two of these players, brothers Yaya and Kolo Toure, are amongst those players participating.

City manager Roberto Mancini had requested for his players to be available for Saturday's match but this was denied by Ivory Coast manager Francois Zahoui. The Ivory Coast side is set to gather in Paris on Saturday before traveling to Abu Dhabi on Sunday for a two-week training camp. Here is what Zahoui had to say about the matter:

"Clubs know the rules. I'm expecting them for the FIFA deadline."

Source: BBC

In addition to the Toure brothers, Mario Balotelli is expected to be unavailable for the clash as well. The Italian striker sustained an ankle injury prior to City's recent match with Sunderland. Furthermore, midfielder Gareth Barry is suspended for the match after he was sent-off in City's most recent match versus Liverpool.

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The draw for Round 3 of the FA Cup was done today at Wembley and the headline news is that Manchester City will host Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. Many football fans will fancy the draw given the excitement of this grand match-up while supporters of other contending clubs will be delighted that one of the favorites to win the competition will be knocked out at such an early stage. United supporters may even be somewhat wary of this match-up after this season's 1-6 derby disaster at Old Trafford and after last season's FA Cup semi-final defeat by City at Wembly. However, the optimist will see this as an opportunity of revenge and hopefully United will be showing improved form by the weekend of January 7 and 8 -- the dates of the Round 3 clashes. Here is the full draw:

* Middlesbrough v Shrewsbury

* Nottingham Forest v Leicester City

* Manchester City v Manchester United

* Dagenham & Redbridge or Walsall v Millwall

* Crawley Town v Bristol City

* Doncaster v Notts County

* Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa

* Tottenham Hotspur v Cheltenham

* Sheffield Wednesday v West Ham United

* Milton Keynes Dons v QPR

* Hull City v Ipswich

* Coventry v Southampton

* Brighton & Hove Albion v Wrexham

* Fulham v Charlton

* Birmingham City v Wolverhampton Wanderers

* Norwich City v Burnley

* Arsenal v Leeds United

* Derby v Crystal Palace

* Fleetwood or Yeovil v Blackpool

* Swindon v Wigan Athletic

* Barnsley v Swansea City

* Chelmsford or Macclesfield v Bolton Wanderers

* Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers

* Everton v Tamworth

The rest of the draw after the jump...

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OPENING LINEUPS & FORMATIONS: Manchester United played in a '4-3-3/4-5-1' hybrid shape. Edwin van der Sar was in goal and center-back pairing was Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. John O'Shea was the right-back and Patrice Evra the left-back. Michael Carrick shielded his defense as a deep-lying playmaker. Paul Scholes played slightly higher up the pitch than he normally has for much of this season in the central midfield. The versatile Park Ji-Sung joined them in the center of the pitch. Antonio Valencia was the wide right player and Nani was the wide left player. Dimitar Berbatov led the attacking line as the lone frontman. 

Manchester City matched United's '4-3-3' shape. Joe Hart was in goal and the center-back tandem was Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott. Pablo Zabaleta was the right-back and Aleksandar Kolarov was the left-back. In the center of the pitch, Nigel De Jong was City's holding player, Gareth Barry was their possession passer, and Yaya Toure was the attacker. Adam Johnson was the wide player on the right and David Silva played in a free role that was based on the left side of play. Mario Balotelli was the striker. 

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