Manchester United v Liverpool: injuries to Ashley Young and Nemanja Vidic leave Sir Alex Ferguson counting cost But with centre-half Jonny Evans missing the game with a hamstring injury, the knee injuries sustained by Young and Vidic threaten to force the pair out of Wednesday's FA Cup third round replay against West Ham and, potentially, the league game at Tottenham on Sunday. Although Liverpool's late fightback left United grateful for their victory, Ferguson insisted that the win could prove crucial. "Winning these games is important," Ferguson said. It doesn't matter position what we are in the league, Manchester United-Liverpool games are a fantastic challenge between two of the most successful teams in the country and those three points are hopefully very important. I'm just glad we won the match. "Robin's different class, he produces moments in the game that others can't do" said United forward Danny Welbeck. We're glad to have him on our side. It was a great team performance all round. We had our game plan set up and I think it worked quite well in the first half, but in the second half, they got into it at the back end of the game. We dug in pretty well, though, and our character showed through at the end. Despite United's win, Ferguson appeared to point to further evidence of goalkeeper David de Gea's struggles to adjust to English football by raising doubts about the manner of Sturridge's goal. De Gea had initially saved Steven Gerrard's goal, but the Spaniard palmed the ball back into play rather pushing it behind for a corner and Sturridge capitalised by scoring his second Liverpool goal from the rebound. "I haven't seen the Liverpool goal again but it looked a bit soft," Ferguson said. Once again, the keeper has parried one out and nobody is following in the rebound. It lifted them. Some of our defending after that was a bit erratic and even desperate at times, but we managed to get through it.