Rio must make grand return

English FA Premiership: Rio Ferdinand returns to the Manchester United side this evening (Sky Sports 1, 8.00) and eight months of intense frustration give way to colossal expectation. "He will revel in the atmosphere generated on these occasions," said Alex Ferguson. He must also excel.

Without Ferdinand at the heart of their defence, banned for missing a drugs test, United have stuttered, keeping just five clean sheets in the 21 league games since his last match in January.

"He's a mammoth player for us," said Phil Neville before visit of Liverpool. "People maybe thought he had not been as successful as he could have been when he first joined the club. But you don't realise until he has been out of the team just what presence he has within the side. I'll never forget when Eric Cantona was banned. During that eight-month period we didn't play well at all, but the moment he came back it was like a big black cloud had been lifted throughout the club."

Ferdinand will be excused a little ring-rustiness but United - 10 points off Arsenal - can ill afford to slip up at Old Trafford. Liverpool have won three of their past four visits and will include their new midfield pairing of Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, with Ferguson left to rue what might have been.

The Scot has long coveted Gerrard, but he had also expressed an interest in the Spaniard until Ferdinand's ban shifted his outlook. "We had a look at Alonso for a while, but our priorities changed a little bit," said Ferguson. "The interesting thing with (Liverpool manager) Rafael Benitez is the similarity to the way Arsene Wenger came into the Arsenal job. He knew the French market fantastically well and identified the young players he thought could do well in England.

"Benitez, with his knowledge of the Spanish market, has taken Alonso, Luis Garcia and others into the English league. He is ahead of all the other managers such as myself and Arsene in knowing about these players."

Ryan Giggs will, at 30, become only the third player in United's history - after Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes - to make 600 appearances if he takes the field tonight.

Meanwhile there were protests from Liverpool fans over songs that had appeared on the fan zone of United's official website. Chants including "Build a bonfire, put the Scousers on the top" were translated into Spanish for the arrival of Benitez and his team. Despite United having promised to remove them they were still there yesterday.