Rafael Benítez understands why indifference can sometimes be more hurtful than hatred. Well aware that the intensity of Sir Alex Ferguson's feelings towards him wax and wane as the threat from Anfield intensifies or recedes, Liverpool's manager will be privately wounded by his Manchester United counterpart's current lack of personal vexation.

Although Ferguson definitely regards Liverpool's visit to Old Trafford tomorrow as a potential local difficulty en route to a big prize, Chelsea and Arsenal remain his principal concerns. As he airily swatted questions about Benítez away with almost patronising disdain yesterday, the inference was that Liverpool's manager is no longer sufficiently important to expend valuable energy winding up.

When, last March, they challenged United for the title – winning 4-1 at Old Trafford – it was all so very different, with Ferguson taking repeated verbal potshots at his Spanish rival. Twelve months on there is no danger of Liverpool's tanks once again parking on the Scot's front lawn.

"Last season was another situation," said Benítez, whose team now face a desperate struggle merely to qualify for the Champions League. "Last year we shared a lot of things. This year is different, they are at the top, we have to try and finish in the top four. The main thing for me is to concentrate on my team."

Benítez's infamous public rant against Ferguson's modus operandi seems aeons rather than 14 months ago. "I don't talk with him but now I know him a little better," said the Liverpool manager, who made sympathetic contact with his then enemy when Ferguson's grandson recovered from a car crash at Merseyside's Alder Hey hospital last spring. "You have to separate the personal and the professional."

According to the winger Albert Riera – suspended in the wake of unflattering comments about his manager – the Spaniard's cold professionalism is unleavened by a human touch and such emotionally unintelligent management has much to do with their recent travails.

Benítez prefers to regard the respective fortunes of Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney as the story of this season. While the Manchester United forward has exceeded expectations, Torres has struggled for fitness. "Fernando is so important for us," he said. "If he had been fit all season we would be closer to the top. He would have been scoring goals in a lot of games. Fernando is a fantastic player. Rooney is very, very good, but Fernando is our player, the fans love him, and we want to keep him for a long time."

Without Torres alongside him, Steven Gerrard has underachieved, but Benítez believes the pair's recent reunion will prove catalytic. "When Stevie and Fernando are fully fit they can change games, they can win games on their own," he said. "So if the team is working hard as well, we can beat anyone. If everyone is available and playing well we are very difficult to beat."

Gerrard and Torres have badly missed Xabi Alonso's incisive, tempo-setting playmaking skills since the midfielder's defection to Real Madrid last summer. Benítez, who cannot have envisaged United adapting quite so well to life after Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps underestimated Alonso's importance to his side's calibration.

Moreover while assorted United players have happily stepped out of Ronaldo's shadow and at various times, commanded centre stage, potential Liverpool luminaries such as Yossi Benayoun, Ryan Babel and Riera have often struggled to raise their game accordingly.

If United are not quite as expansively fluid as they once were, Ferguson affords his charges infinitely more scope for improvisation and there is a sense too much emphasis is placed on tactical control rather than off the cuff creativity at Anfield. Significantly United's manager also knows when to whisper encouragement in individual's ears. As Riera has made plain, managerial aloofness can breed disillusion.

Rumours that Liverpool may change managers in the summer, when Torres could also depart, have intensified, but, following Thursday night's win over Lille, Benítez gave the impression of a man intending to stick around for the long haul. Asked if the Anfield ship was sinking, he replied: "I haven't seen the players talking too much about this."

Instead, his squad's chatter about the trip along the M62 and the beckoning Europa League quarter-final against Benfica suddenly sounded freshly confident. The next fortnight should help determine whether it represents the false bravado of a failing regime or the beginning of a renaissance destined to raise Ferguson's blood pressure once more.