Sir Alex Ferguson has played down talk of a rift between Tomasz Kuszczak and Edwin van der Sar, the Manchester United goalkeepers.

In an interview with MUTV, Manchester United's television station, Kuszczak seemed to attack the veteran Dutchman for not offering him enough support and for snubbing the Poland international's request for advice.

But the United manager, who is preparing to face Chelsea on Sunday, insisted the reserve keeper made the criticism in jest. "It is just not true," he said. "Tomasz was cracking a joke. He was laughing when he said it. There is no problem between him and Edwin. Maybe it is just that Polish humour doesn't translate to British humour."

Kuszczak had appeared to lay bare a bitter relationship with Van der Sar. “To be honest, I must say this and Edwin doesn’t like this too much for sure, but he doesn’t help me too much,” Kuszczak said. “I have told him a few times already to give me some more advice because he’s got more experience and got many more games under his belt.

“I say, ‘You have to give me something more because I like to know what I do wrong and like to watch other people. Doing that I can take some good from the advice I get.’ But I don’t know, maybe Edwin doesn’t like me. You’ll have to ask him.”

Van der Sar was heavily criticised for his performance against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday but is expected to retain his place at Stamford Bridge, with either Kuszczak or Ben Foster on the bench.