Assistant boss Sammy Lee maintains Premier League leaders Liverpool must not be fazed by the emergence of Manchester United as title challengers. "A lot of pundits have said there's only one team that can win the league - and I don't buy into that, either. You can't rule teams out in January," Lee told the club's official website.

"We can't keep looking over our shoulders. We have got to do what we have got to do."

There was, though, little hiding the disappointment following Liverpool's goalless draw on Stoke, which allowed United to close the gap on them to five points.

Lee said: "That is the measure of this team at the moment - that we go away from home and get a point in the Premier League and we are disappointed.

"We go for all three points, but we have to take the positives. The game did not transpire how we would have liked - we had control and we lost it.

"But the positives, for me, were that we got a point and we did not concede from the many, many set pieces that they had."