[ENGLAND] Manchester United hoped to bring along rehabilitating Cristiano Ronaldo slowly, but the Red Devils may need him for next Sunday's clash with Chelsea. Sir Alex Ferguson termed United's performance "shocking" in it 2-1 loss at Liverpool on Saturday and increased the pressure on him to bring back Ronaldo as soon as possible to jumpstart United's season.

Starting without stars Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, both nursing slight injury problems, Liverpool looked a longshot to end its four-year winless streak against Manchester United in EPL play, but the Red Devils gifted Liverpool both goals.

All the attention was on new signing Dimitar Berbatov, who needed only three minutes to show his value by setting up Carlos Tevez for the game's opening goal, but United blunders allowed Liverpool to win and move into a tie for first place with Chelsea.

First, goalie Edwin van der Sar palmed a deflected shot off Wes Brown's knee and into the goal for the equalizer in the 26th minute. In the 77th minute, Ryan Giggs coughed up the ball, allowing Argentine Javier Mascherano to feed Dutchman Ryan Babel for the winning goal.

"When you score after three minutes, you should be consolidating that, but we never won a tackle and you have to hand it to Liverpool," Ferguson said. "When you have bad days, the big thing is to get something from them, but we conceded two goals that were absolute shockers. People will say that it is some Conference [fifth level] team defending when they see us on television. It was shocking stuff."

To make matters worse, United midfielder Michael Carrick injured an ankle injury following a challenge with Mascherano and defender Nemanja Vidic was sent off, ruling him out of next Sunday's game with Chelsea.

Ronaldo has spent two months on the sidelines following ankle surgery.

"Ronaldo is training now," Ferguson said. "He's with the first team and he's aiming to be a substitute at Chelsea on Sept. 21. He's come on leaps and bounds."

LA LIGA RESULTS:
Sept. 13-14/Day 4
Liverpool 2 (Own goal 27, Babel 77) Manchester Utd. 1 (Tevez 3).
Newcastle 1 (Xisco 82) Hull City 2 (King pen. 34, 55).
Fulham 2 (Gera 15, Zamora 41) Bolton 1 (Davies 82).
Blackburn 0 Arsenal 4 (van Persie 8, Adebayor 45, pen. 81, 90).
Wigan 1 (Zaki 78) Sunderland 1 (Own goal 15).
West Brom 3 (Morrison 3, Bednar 37, Brunt 83) West Ham 2 (Noble 29, Neill 35).
Portsmouth 2 (Defoe 59, 86) Middlesbrough 1 (Mido 24).
Manchester C. 1 (Robinho 13) Chelsea 3 (Carvalho 16, Lampard 53, Anelka 71).
Stoke City 2 (Olofinjana 55, own goal 63) Everton 3 (Ayegbini 41, Anichebe 51, Cahill 77).