Ferdinand appeals for a winning mentality

MAN United's Rio Ferdinand has called on his team-mates to show a winning mentality if they are to stand any chance of landing the Premiership title this season.

The 23-year-old England centre-half is worried about United's poor away form two wins all season ahead of tomorrow's visit to struggling West Brom.

One of those victories came at Liverpool just highlights the disappointing nature of the Red Devils' form away from Old Trafford this season and Ferdinand knows the record must get better if they are to close Arsenal's five-point lead at the Premiership summit.

"We need a winning mentality," Ferdinand said yesterday. "The most important thing now is to keep progressing, put in decent performances and get results. It wouldn't matter who we were playing tomorrow, West Brom or someone in the top five, we would still need to win."

After the midweek League Cup semi-final draw with Blackburn, manager Alex Ferguson expressed the hope that skipper Roy Keane would have recovered from the hamstring strain which forced him off against Portsmouth last weekend.

However, Keane said he was in no hurry to return, so Phil Neville stands by to start his 27th game of a busy campaign. "I've had hamstring strains in the past and you think you're better and come back too early," Keane said.

"You end off worse than you were at the start, so I just have to be careful how I deal with it. The key word over the next few days is patience and we'll see what happens. It's frustrating."

For the first time in a decade, United have reached the turn of the year still competing on four fronts, although Ferdinand is not fazed by the prospect of a crushed end-of-season run-in.

"We have to make sure everyone is in tip-top condition," he said.

"But the reason I came here was to be fighting to get into positions like these. You want to play in big games." Meanwhile, Juan Sebastian Veron insists he is happy at United at least for now as reports continue to suggest the Argentinean will return to Italy.

Veron has persistently been linked with a return to Serie A after struggling to find his form in the Premiership with former club Lazio and Juventus among the names in the frame.

But yesterday, the 27-year-old Veron said: "I have a three-year contract with Manchester and I am fine in England. Finally, I am proving my worth in a difficult season. Now that I have settled I have no intention of leaving and my agent has maintained that he has not received any telephone calls from Juventus."

Veron also played down speculation regarding Manchester United team-mate Ryan Giggs, a supposed target of Italian clubs. "I think Giggs will remain with us," he said.

Giggs is the latest to feel the burden of expectation weighing heavily on his shoulders, but Ferdinand has already adopted the "one for all, all for one" mentality.

"You want to look after your mates," he said. "If someone gets a knock you want to be there for them.

"The more you get to know people the better you become together."