Fergie: Ronaldo is no diver

Alex Ferguson has lashed out at claims that Cristiano Ronaldo is a diver.

Charlton defender Chris Perry criticised the Portuguese winger in the aftermath of United’s 2-0 win at The Valley on Saturday.

With Southampton’s Kevin Phillips and Arsenal’s Robert Pires also coming under the spotlight after appearing to collapse under little contact during Barclaycard Premiership matches at the weekend, the issue of players diving has become a hot topic.

But, while Ferguson admitted diving has become a problem in the domestic game, he stood up for his summer recruit from Sporting Lisbon.

And, to emphasise his point, the Scot drew on Greek mythology.

“I have watched the video again and Cristiano would have needed the strength of Atlas not to go down,” said Ferguson, referring to the Titan who was forced to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders as punishment for losing a war against the Greek gods.

“We have seen evidence over the weekend that diving is a problem in our game and I believe the introduction of foreign players has brought that part.

“But I don’t think Ronaldo dived. It is easy to say he went to ground too easily, he would have been a fool to try withstand those type of tackles.”

Ferguson is likely to offer Ronaldo a Champions League debut tomorrow when United open their campaign against Panathinaikos at Old Trafford.

It is almost five months since the Red Devils tumbled out of last season’s competition after two thrilling outings with Real Madrid, since when Ferguson has done plenty of reflection on what went wrong.

For all the attacking quality his side showed during their epic 4-3 second leg win, the tie was over when United slid three goals behind during the first encounter in the Bernabeu.

With all but one member of his defence retained since then, Fabien Barthez appears to have been singled out for the calamitous opening.

“When you score five goals in a European quarter-final, you expect to reach the semi,” he said.

“If we had maintained the defensive solidity we had shown for most of the season, we would have been into the next round but we went to Madrid and conceded some soft goals.

“You are always looking for improvements and one thing about our defence now is that they are all young, they haven’t had the experience of playing together for two or three years like Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister did 10 years ago.

“That was a great period for us in terms of people playing together for a long period of time. Now we are looking for that same consistency of performance.”

Once again though, Ferguson will be denied the services of some key players.

With half an eye on Sunday’s Premiership encounter with Arsenal, ankle injury victim Roy Keane will not be risked on the bench providing Mikael Silvestre recovers from a knee problem, while long-term absentees Paul Scholes, Kleberson and Wes Brown are again missing.

No decision has yet been taken on whether Scholes will be sent for a third hernia operation, although Ferguson admitted the deadline for a decision is drawing near.

It means either Phil Neville or Eric Djemba-Djemba will partner Nicky Butt in central midfield, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer likely to return in attack to support Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Having seen his team defeat Greek opposition in the last three seasons at Old Trafford, Ferguson will expect United to gain three of the 10 points he believes will be required to advance into the last 16.

This season, that will mean a knock-out round instead of the second group phase, although Ferguson does not believe the new format will mean a change of contenders for the trophy AC Milan won on penalties at Old Trafford in May.

“Any one of 10 teams could easily win it,” he said.

“You have so many with such great history. Ajax have won it four times, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Juventus have won it on a number of occasions, we have won it twice and that’s without even mentioning Real Madrid.

“The first stage does take on greater significance now and we won’t be taking any chances.”