Tottenham Hotspur’s Darren Bent celebrates after scoring against Portsmouth during their Premier League match at White Hart Lane on Saturday. Tottenham won 2-0. (Reuters)

Manchester: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has expressed support for Rafa Benitez in Liverpool’s ongoing ownership battle.

The two teams meet in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Sunday and the Red Devils are looking to build a six-point lead at the top of the standings.

Ferguson suggested that co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. hindered Liverpool’s 18-year search for a league title and that the Americans ‘humiliated’ Benitez by approaching Juergen Klinsmann as a potential replacement as Liverpool coach.

“I don’t think any media attention helps when managers have been criticised,” Ferguson said on Friday. “No one gets criticised more than managers.

“The rapidity of managers being sacked this season is at an all-time peak, particularly in the Premier League. Every Christmas time, a third of the country’s managers are wondering about their jobs, going home at Christmas time to tell their kids they don’t have a job. That’s the humiliation managers face every time.”

Liverpool has been in turmoil amid a deterioration in the American duo’s relationship and a Dubai consortium persisting in its takeover bid.

Ferguson needs those distractions to continue to prevent Benitez claiming his first league victory over United since taking charge in 2004. “It’ll be a fantastically engrossing game as normal against Liverpool,” Ferguson said. “You can’t avoid the intensity of it, the tension, the atmosphere. The game that players always want to play in.”

Ferguson said a title success is down to consistency and nerve. “At this time of the year we’re talking about major shifts in the balance,” Ferguson said. “It can be decided by one bad performance, an own goal, a penalty kick and I think I’ve experienced all these things in different ways. Even with experience it’s not easy — if you’ve won nine championships like Ryan Giggs, you still carry the burden of expectation when you’re trying to win it again.”

United’s central threat is Cristiano Ronaldo, who got his 33rd goal of the season on Wednesday in the 2-0 victory over Bolton to surpass George Best’s club record for a winger. The Portugal international has scored 24 times in as many league starts.

“His form has been absolutely fantastic, there’s no end to where we think he can go,” Ferguson said. “His tenacity to keep getting the ball and courage to keep getting up all the time is terrific.”

But Benitez believes his lethal partnership of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres could end his dismal record against Ferguson.

“The partnership between Torres and Gerrard has made a massive difference, it is difficult for teams to stop them both. We are profiting from this,” Benitez said. “They have trained together for months, and now it is easier for them to work together. Both are scoring goals and things are easier because they are happy on the pitch.” (AP)