Exploitation Of Mistakes

Benitez is a genius, apparently. All the papers are trotting out the line that his "inspired tactics" gave them the victory. Did everyone independently come to this conclusion? It turns out that no, they didn't. They got it from Rafa Benitez telling them that it was so. Great. The only report bucking the trend is Oliver Kay's in The Times, which at least analyses the claim, rather than just taking it for granted:

Three of their four goals on Saturday stemmed from the kind of up-and-under clearances that seemed to belong firmly in the “hit and hope” category — at least until the Liverpool manager, more than a little eager afterwards to share his battle plan with anyone who was listening, suggested that he had successfully identified and exposed Manchester United’s Achilles’ heel.

"Hit and hope". Alan Hansen tells us that, "the tactics were what Liverpool and their supporters have been crying out for". Excellent. I've always loved watching long ball teams as well, such beauty in their play... Anyway. Back to Oliver Kay, who describes their goals nicely:

Goal one: Martin Skrtel, in his own penalty area, clears the danger with a huge punt that goes so high that Vidic, waiting just beyond the halfway line, misjudges its flight in the sun. Now chasing back towards goal, Vidic panics under pressure from Fernando Torres, who marches through and clips a shot past Edwin van der Sar, equalising for Liverpool just five minutes after Cristiano Ronaldo, with a penalty, had given United the lead.
Goal two: Sami Hyypia elegantly brings down the ball and passes back to José Manuel Reina, who instantly kicks a clearance high into the United half. Steven Gerrard, left unattended in the no man’s land between the United midfield and back four, flicks it on to Torres, who turns and sends the ball forward into the path of Gerrard, by now in full flight down the inside-right channel.

As Gerrard bursts past Patrice Evra into the penalty area, he is brought down, to inevitable consequence. Gerrard keeps his nerve from the penalty spot to put Liverpool 2-1 up at half-time. Goal three: not an upand-under this time, but still a long pass as Lucas Leiva chips a diagonal ball from the left-hand touchline to Dirk Kuyt, whose clever header takes Evra out of position and leaves Vidic isolated in support of Gerrard. The Liverpool captain gets to the ball first and is wrestled to the floor. Vidic, having denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, ends his abysmal afternoon with a red card, his third of the season. United’s punishment is compounded when Fábio Aurélio beats Van der Sar with the free kick.

Goal four: with the game in stoppage time, Reina hits another long kick, which, with the help of a strong wind, is misjudged by Ferdinand and John O’Shea and carries almost as far as the United penalty area. Andrea Dossena, the substitute, races through to lob Van der Sar in front of what is now a half-empty Stretford End and crown Liverpool’s biggest win at Old Trafford since November 1936, when the Merseyside club had Matt Busby at right half.

To me, whether or not Benitez decided on this tactic, it certainly doesn't make him a genius, it puts him on the same level as all those other managers of average teams who decide the best way to beat quality opposition is to hit and hope. It's a tactic borne of desperation, not of genius. Fact.
Alan Hansen calls it, "the best moment of the season for them [Liverpool]", and it certainly will be.
The Independent, as is often the case, has a dreadful report, Ian Herbert falling hook, line and sinker for the Benitez as genius line, while at the same time pretending to be clever by including references to Freud in his report, references which are generally misleading as to Freud's work, probably cribbed from Wikipedia. And I'm not quoting it, but the second paragraph begins nonsensically, which doesn't seem very clever (in fact most of the article reads dreadfully)...
And yes, I am feeling in the mood to be petty today.
Some words from Rio Ferdinand:

"Losing any game is disappointing, losing to your big rivals is even worse and the scoreline compounds that. But we have to turn this into a positive. This game will have torn out any subconscious complacency.

"We now have time to dust ourselves down and get our minds on the game next week, against Fulham. It would be nice if that game was right around the corner, but we have to deal with what's in front of us."

And there's a bit of a storm in a teacup over Sir Alex's refusal of the pre- and post-match Sky interviews, reported in The Times:

Sir Alex Ferguson refused to speak to Sky Sports after Manchester United’s 4-1 defeat by Liverpool on Saturday in protest at the 12.45pm kick-off time, which he believes gave the Merseyside club an unfair advantage.
Ferguson does not appear to have used this as an excuse for his team’s abject performance. In an interview with MUTV, the club’s television station, he said that his team “kept driving on and showed good energy, even though we only had 2½ days to prepare for the match”.