Albert Riera will make his debut on the wing, while Dirk Kuyt and Robbie Keane start up front.
The Reds XI in full is: Reina, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Carragher, Skrtel, Alonso, Mascherano, Riera, Benayoun, Keane, Kuyt. Subs: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypia, Ngog, Torres, Gerrard, Babel.
Rafa Benitez has recorded his first league win over Manchester United after Ryan Babel added to a Wes Brown OG to give Liverpool a 2-1 victory at Anfield.
The Reds had to recover from a nightmare start after Carlos Tevez gave the visitors a third minute lead.
A 90th minute sending off for Nemanja Vidic added late drama to a fantastic match which will long be remembered round these parts.
The result is even more satisfying given the fact Benitez went into the encounter without talisman Steven Gerrard and top goalscorer Fernando Torres - albeit both made the seven-man bench. For their part, United had to cope with the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, though Alex Ferguson could call upon £30million deadline day signing Dimitar Berbatov.
It was the Bulgarian who played the orchestrator as the game got off to a frenetic start.
Even before the goal, Berbatov had a shot blocked by the arms of Martin Skrtel, though thankfully Howard Webb adjudged it to be accidental.
United will say that justice was done just moments later when the new boy's low cross rolled agonisingly past the Reds backline towards Tevez, who made no mistake in finding the back of Pepe Reina's net.
Three minutes gone and our chances of recording a first league win over United since April 2004 were already severely dented.
The Liverpool response was almost immediate as Dirk Kuyt volleyed narrowly wide from 15 yards.
Minutes later Kuyt was again denied, this time by the flailing arms of the hapless van der Sar, who recovered well from some sloppy handling.
This was followed by some neat trickery from debutant Albert Riera, who appeared to be fouled after evading two defenders in the box. Again referee Webb kept his whistle in his pocket, making it 1-1 in the questionable penalty decision stakes.
If tempers were always under control, there remained a palpable bite to proceedings, illustrated with a petulant challenge from Wayne Rooney on 22 minutes after a fierce but perfectly time tackle from Javier Mascherano.
If this wasn't quite madness, what followed four minutes later certainly was as Xabi Alonso's 25-yard cross-cum-shot deflected off one United defender before a horrible spill from van der Sar sent the ball into the net off Brown's shin.
In what can only be described as an act of footballing romanticism, Anfield announcer George Sefton gave the goal to the lurking Riera, but the Spanish international will have to wait a little longer to record his first Liverpool goal.
A relative period of quiet followed, though a couple of excellent interventions from stand-in captain Jamie Carragher were required to thwart the ever-dangerous Berbatov before half-time.
It was Liverpool who created the better openings when the second period got underway, notably when Yossi Benayoun was fed through only to lose control as van der Sar closed in.
Seconds later Mascherano's right boot smashed the ball into the six-yard box, where the lively Robbie Keane waited on legs not quite long enough to get the required flick.
Skrtel was next in the act, playing a one-two with Kuyt before testing the goalkeeper from 20 yards.
If this made the Kop smile, then the entrance of Gerrard on 67 minutes made them positively purr.
That said, the skipper's appearance was almost immediately overshadowed by a looping shot from another substitute, Ryan Giggs, which forced a fingertip save from Reina.
Next to make way was Riera, who can be satisfied with a decent 70-minute debut which left the Anfield faithful thirsty for more.
But while he enjoyed an early shower, his replacement, Ryan Babel, wasted no time making his mark by becoming the first Liverpool player to score a league goal against United in almost 14 hours of football.
The 77th minute strike was a product of fantastic persistence from Mascherano down the right, allowing Kuyt to gain possession and roll the ball across the face of goal, where his countryman waited to tuck home with ease.
There was more late drama as the final whistle loomed when Nemanja Vidic went in elbow first on Xabi Alonso to receive a second yellow.
Kuyt could have put the icing on the cake in injury time but he was denied from close range by van der Sar.
Benitez paid tribute to his players after the match and was happy with the amount of character his charges showed to come from behind and take the points.
"I think today is a game we can be really satisfied with because we were losing against a very good team," said Benitez. "But we showed character and played very well in the second half, so this was very positive.
"The team showed a lot of character after conceding an early goal. I was really disappointed when they scored so early because I wanted a high tempo from the start. They were passing the ball and keeping possession, so we needed to change a lot of things. I think it was really important to have chances and to improve a lot in the second half."
There were many stand-out performances during the match, but the Liverpool manager focused on the whole team and said: "Today you could see a lot of players working really hard, especially the strikers Dirk Kuyt and Robbie Keane, who were doing amazing work up front, and also Albert Riera in his first game played well – he is a lucky man.
"Physically he was not ready but we needed to use his ability. And after we used Steven Gerrard, he did well too. I can talk about a lot of players - Ryan Babel was really good too, but I think the overall play of the team was good."
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson admitted that his team couldn't cope with Liverpool's tackling and harassing in midfield.
Benitez agreed, saying: "In the last two years, I can remember that they were happy waiting and just playing on the counter-attack until we make mistakes," added Benitez. "And today was more or less the same situation. When you have players with the quality of Berbatov, Tevez or Rooney in front, sometimes they just need to wait and if we make a mistake they will kill us off.
"We didn't make many mistakes today. We can always improve and do things better, but the team played well.
"One thing that we needed to improve was our results against the top sides so now we have three points and we are in a better position than last season. We now have more wins against the top four so hopefully it will be the same against Chelsea and Arsenal. Everton is also another difficult game for us."
Well, thats what the official web says but from me...
The match was awesome! I mean I was like 'okay liverpool will lose like how everyone perdicted' look on my face when Tevez goaled but after Ryan Babel goaled I felt so satisfied! Thank you god!
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