We won’t crack on title run-in, vows Fergie
After picking up just seven points from their last seven Barclays Premier League away games, City have now surrendered the initiative in the battle for domestic supremacy.
Even worse, the Blues are facing the prospect of slipping four points behind their fiercest rivals, who visit relegation-threatened Wolves at the weekend, before they can do something about it in what promises to be tough encounter with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on March 21.
Ferguson took the opportunity to remind the Blues what they probably already knew; Manchester United are not going to fold.
“We have that experience and it does help,” said the United boss.
“We won’t get nervous.
“Against West Brom we kept playing our football even at 1-0 when the fans were thinking ‘just get us a second’.
“It didn’t concern the players one bit. It is good to see that kind oftemperament.”
It is the kind of attitude that is only built up through years of scrapping for major honours and United’s significant advantage in a season when their squad has been decimated by injuries. Nani and Anderson are the latest to succumb, although at least with the former, his present absence with an injury picked up on the training ground should not be long term. Ferguson avoided a question about Anderson, which meant there was no opportunity to allay fears generated by rumours that the midfielder has picked up a hamstring problem that may, in a worst casescenario, end his season.
Yet the return of Tom Cleverley from his ankle injury means help is at hand, just as United have somehow kept a flow of goals from wider positions coming by having either Nani, Ashley Young or Antonio Valencia available even though Ferguson has rarely been able to choose from all three.
Valencia returns to training this week after picking up a hamstring injury nearly four weeks ago, whilst Young, who missed nearly two months with a knee injury, is starting to find top form again and was a clear man-of-the-match on Sunday.
United’s newly-gained league status should sharpen minds ahead of this week’s return encounter with Bilbao.
While Ferguson would never merely give a game up, he is highly unlikely to ask his first-choice 11 to turn around a tie they should really have no chance in anyway such was the brilliance of the Basque outfit at Old Trafford.
Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand are unlikely to be risked and it would be no surprise if Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney were on the bench as Ferguson attempts to keep key men fresh for the trip to Molineux.
“He can go as far as he wants to,” said Young of Rooney, whose season tally now stands at 26, just eight fewer than his best haul, and has been challenged to hit 40 by his manager.
“He has done brilliantly this season. Hopefully he keeps adding to his tally and we can keep getting the three points.”
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