Sir Alex Ferguson addressed the world's media at Carrington today ahead of this weekend's visit of Wigan Athletic to Old Trafford.
Below are quotes from the presser courtesy of manutd.com
Sir Alex on team news for the Wigan match:
“On the injury front, everyone’s fit, apart from the ones we know about – Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. Jones was a bad blow for us. He got an injury in training last weekend. He’ll be out for 8-10 weeks. We expect Smalling to be back training inside a month. But with Jonny Evans now back we’re in better shape at centre-back than we were a couple of weeks ago.”
On players returning from internationals:
“You always have concerns about players travelling [long distances] in international breaks – we had Chicharito, Valencia and Kagawa. They’ve all done it before, although with Shinji we don’t know exactly how he reacts to travelling back from long distances. Hopefully he’ll be okay.”
On Darren Fletcher:
“Darren’s training well and played in the reserves on Tuesday night. The next step is when we can involve him in a game in the first team. He’s in the squad tomorrow, simply because I think it will give him a boost. It’s a chance to progress. At this moment in time everything’s going fine for him. We understand the condition he has to deal with – that can change but hopefully he’s managed to conquer it in terms of his diet and how he handles it. Things are going well at the moment.”
On facing Liverpool next week after the Hillsborough report:
“It shouldn’t need what happened this week to change things [between United and Liverpool supporters]. Two great clubs, ourselves and Liverpool, should understand each other’s problems. The fact we’re playing them after the findings we’ve been reading about in the last few days does brings a focus to it. Both clubs have suffered such tremendous fatalities through football. Maybe it’s a line in the sand now in terms of how supporters behave towards each other. The reputation of both clubs doesn’t deserve trouble. You hope supporters of both teams support their club and that’s the end of it.”
On landmarks for Giggs, Scholes and Ferdinand:
“My personal feeling is that Ryan can play for another couple of years. Paul’s a different physical specimen to Ryan and he’s had his injuries – two knee injuries, an eye injury – and yet he’s playing his 700th game. It’s phenomenal. Rio’s playing his 400th game. It’s a landmark for the three players and it’s a great example to the younger players about what can be achieved if they sacrifice in football. These players have done that or they would never have got to this stage.”
On the quest for clean sheets:
“We’re losing soft goals at the moment and we’re going to address that as we did last year. Defending is every bit as important as the goals we’re scoring. There are goals in our team, certainly but you have to balance that out. Do we have to score three to win every game? I don’t want to go down that road. Hopefully we can keep Ferdinand and Vidic fit. That will help.”
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