Kuyt out to dent United title bid

Dirk Kuyt is used to a little pain. After all, he pays a big Dutchman to come over from Holland twice a year and hit him very hard with a mallet.

Kuyt flies 'Jan-Jan the hammer man' over to England to pummel his beleaguered body 'to find out which bones and joints are out of place because of all the kicks I get during the season'. 

However, nothing the orthomanual therapist can inflict on him could surely be as painful as having to watch bitter rivals Manchester United win a 19th League title that will take them one ahead of Liverpool in the all-time honours list.

Liverpool have been here before. They won 4-1 at Old Trafford last season, but United still won the Barclays Premier League crown.

There is a rivalry between the two teams that is realised in the dressing room. 

'It's a very big game,' he said. 'We definitely want to finish fourth and we'll be very happy to see them not win the League. They're our rivals and we don't want to see them win it.

'We can do ourselves a favour in this kind of game and if we win we'll do everyone a favour. But we have to focus on our game.'

Liverpool have made steps in the right direction in games against United during Kuyt's time at Anfield: four straight defeats without a goal to their name in his first two seasons have been followed by three healthy victories.

'I couldn't have been more happy to beat them three times in a row and hopefully we can beat them again this time,' he said.

Liverpool's win at this stage a year ago was their biggest at Old Trafford since 1936.

'That was one of the best games and best results since I've been here,' said the 29-year-old. 'Unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough to win the title, but to beat them twice in the season gave us a very positive feeling.'

Playing for Feyenoord against Ajax, when the journey from Rotterdam to Amsterdam was routinely under escort by armed guards and helicopters, soon taught Kuyt how to handle a volatile fixture like this one.

He said: 'Liverpool versus United is one of the great fixtures in world football. I used to follow as many games as I could when I was younger and you could always see the intensity.

'England is a bigger country and more intense even than Holland but the atmosphere in these games has the same feeling. The supporters live for this game and everyone knows it's massive.'

Kuyt's reputation as a big-game player is well deserved.

He scored in the Champions League final defeat by AC Milan at the end of his first season at Anfield, was on target against Arsenal and Chelsea in the latter stages of the competition the following year and then snatched an extra-time winner that saw Benitez's side qualify at the expense of Standard Liege last season. Only Steven Gerrard and Ian Rush have scored more times in Europe for the club.

Then there are the four Merseyside derby goals against Everton, and the late strikes last season that helped Liverpool to challenge for the title for so long, even though more often than not he was operating wide on the right to accommodate striker Fernando Torres.

Yet Kuyt is still waiting for that elusive first goal against United.

The nearest he came was in Liverpool's 2-0 win at Anfield earlier this season when former Holland team-mate Edwin van der Sar denied him from close range.

'It was almost impossible to save it but Van der Sar made a great stop,' he said. 'I've scored against him before but he was not in a Manchester United shirt. It's a gap in my CV.'

To help his body cope with the rigours of English football, Kuyt flies over a team of alternative medical experts from his homeland. As well as the hammer man, he employs a faith healer and a haptonomy specialist, who helps with his psychological wellbeing.

'You have to be the boss over your own body,' added Kuyt, who hates missing games so much that he once made 179 consecutive appearances in Holland.

'My motto is that everybody who works on my body has to be a professional and I have to trust each one.' 

Dirk Kuyt was speaking on behalf of Thomas Cook Sport, official travel partner of Liverpool FC. For more information about match breaks and World Cup packages, call 0208 739 2360 or visit www.thomascooksport.com

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.