Van Persie Is Hitting Top Gear

Sir Alex Ferguson thinks United are starting to get the best out of summer signing Robin van Persie.

The shrewd acquisition from Arsenal is the Barclays Premier League's top goalscorer but the manager feels it understandably took time for his team-mates to adjust to his style in order to realise his full potential.

The dramatic late equaliser at West Ham in the FA Cup last weekend again illustrated the Dutch hitman's qualities and he is likely to be a man Liverpool will fear in Sunday's big game.

"I said some time ago that I don't think we appreciated the full use of him but I think that's happening now," stated Sir Alex at his pre-match press conference. "We're more familiar with the type of player he is and that's helped us. He's become really important to us.

"What he did last year was only the culmination of a few years at Arsenal. Any player in the first year, you never know for sure. Who'd have thought Wayne would have scored a hat-trick on his debut? That was fairytale stuff. You never know what you're going to get. What we did think is that we'd found a very good player."

The manager feels the club did not pay too much for a player in the final year of his contract at the Emirates Stadium, which certainly looks the case on the return he has already given on the investment, and cited Samir Nasri's transfer to Manchester City as an example of how the market works.

"The first thing we looked at was the player's ability," he revealed. "To pay that amount of money was a lot for a player in his last year. But the thing about that is that it was proved a year before when City played £24million for Samir Nasri - you either want him or you don't want him.

"If you want him, you have to pay the price the club is sticking out for. We wanted Robin badly so we were prepared to go the extra mile for him. It's just the way the game is nowadays. Obviously if you're negotiating with a club who still has the player under contract for another three or four years then they're in a better position, but at the end of the day negotiations are negotiations."

Meanwhile, Liverpool's chief threat is their top scorer, Luis Suarez, who comes into the match in fine form - even if his goal in the FA Cup at Mansfield was shrouded in controversy last Sunday.

However, Sir Alex feels there is no need to single out the Uruguayan for special attention and the normal preparation will take place for the Old Trafford encounter against the Reds' fiercest rivals.

"We want to concentrate on ourselves," explained the boss. "We pay respect to every opponent and analysis of our opponents is important. You should always give your team as much information as you can.

"Sometimes you can overdo it - going back 20 years ago we could show players a full game on video but these days that doesn't happen. They don't have the concentration. Now we condense it to the important aspects of the game. Suarez is no different to other good players we come up against in the league."