Change of attitude required, says Fergie

Alex Ferguson admits Manchester United’s slack European performances will force him to reassess how to approach games at Old Trafford in future.

Normally so solid on home soil, United have endured a disastrous campaign. They only managed to win one of their three home matches in the Champions League and despite dropping into UEFA’s secondary competition, the Red Devils have been even worse after the winter break.

Thursday night’s defeat by Atletico Bilbao was their second in succession after they almost tossed away a three-goal aggregate advantage against Ajax.

Even before the game Gary Neville was declaring it was one of those years where United were taking a step back in order for their youngsters to move forward. And, after Thursday night’s 3-2 reverse, Ferguson feels a change in attitude is now required.

“We have had a bad year in Europe,” he said.

“We conceded three against Basel, two against Benfica, another three against Bilbao and two to Ajax. That tells its own story. Maybe it is just one of those years where we are having to restock and assess how we should approach games at home.”

Ferguson conceded that without a man-of-the-match display from young goalkeeper David de Gea, the damage could have been even worse.

It was probably the reason why he didn’t spend too long dwelling on that fact his team were the victims of an offside goal for Atletico’s second, and half his team were arguing at the concession of a bizarre free-kick when the Basque outfit shot down the other end to grab their third.

Far more responsible was Rafael’s failure to react after De Gea had denied Oscar de Marcos, allowing Iker Muniain to belt the rebound into an empty net. It was the low point of a sub-standard defensive display from the hosts, more in keeping with their early season performances which culminated in the horrendous 6-1 derby-day loss to Manchester City.

The strange thing is that the European nightmares have come in the midst of some excellent form on the domestic front. Since that near fatal wobble against Ajax, United have won at Norwich and Tottenham. Before facing the Dutch giants they saw off Liverpool and came from three goals down to grab a point at Chelsea. Now they must recover in time to tackle in-form West Brom at Old Trafford tomorrow

“We are desperate to win the league again and Sunday is the next game,” said Carrick. “It is massive, as they all are, and we will be ready for it.”

Chris Smalling is United’s main doubt, although with Rio Ferdinand due back anyway, the blow would not be too severe should the England defender not report for duty after the stitches in a head wound originally suffered playing for England reopened.