Own goal decision will not be able to deflect attention from Buckley

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish insists he is keen to continue working with striker Andy Carroll despite further suggestions the club have tried to offload their record signing.

Reports have claimed Manchester City turned down an approach from the Merseysiders about a potential swap deal with Carlos Tevez and the £35m England international.

That came on the back of speculation earlier this month – dismissed by Liverpool – that Newcastle were keen to take their former No 9 back to the North East if they could get a cut-price deal.

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Liverpool have refused to comment on the story, insisting they never do on transfer speculation, but after Carroll played a part in both goals in Saturday’s win over champions Manchester United, Dalglish was quick to praise the striker, who has had a tough first 12 months for his new club.

“I thought Andy had a fantastic game,” said the Scot. “He works really hard and gave everything he’s got for us. He has a lot of attributes for us to work on.”

All the pre-match talk had been about the behaviour of players and supporters as Patrice Evra returned to the ground for the first time since October’s spat with Luis Suarez eventually resulted in the Uruguay international being banned for eight matches for racial abuse.

But the focus on Evra took a different shape as, with two minutes remaining, he got caught out of position which allowed Carroll to flick on Jose Reina’s goal-kick to Dirk Kuyt who fired past David de Gea.

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The main talking point before Kuyt’s late winner was the performance of United goalkeeper De Gea, starting his first match of 2012, who was culpable for Liverpool’s opener when he allowed himself to be crowded out at a corner and Daniel Agger headed home.

Park Ji-sung equalised shortly before half-time, though, and it appeared the tie was drifting towards a replay neither side wanted until Kuyt struck only his second goal of the campaign.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was unable to mask the shattering disappointment of losing a game he did not think was possible once United had levelled through Park.

“To lose the game is hard to believe,” said the Scot.

“We dominated the game and we were comfortable.

“Our movement off the ball was good and I thought we were in the driving seat.”

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Indeed, so much in command did Ferguson think the visitors were that he introduced Javier Hernandez in an effort to avoid a replay.

“I was looking to win it,” he said.

“I thought Javier’s pace around the edge of the box would be difficult to handle.”