Ferguson vows serious approach

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says his side have learned the lessons from their shock Champions League exit last season.

United failed to progress beyond the group stage from the 2011/12 edition of the competition after a stunning 2-1 defeat by Swiss club Basel in their final fixture

But Ferguson has vowed there will be no repeat of the early elimination this time out, promising to field a strong side for the visit of Turkish club Galatasaray on Wednesday.

“Well, I made that point when they made the draw. We don’t want to be as careless as we were last year,” Ferguson said on Tuesday.

“I think the team I choose tomorrow will reflect that. Over the past few years the group stages have been pretty straight forward for us, so it gave me the opportunity to play a lot of young players, but we’ll be playing a more experienced team tomorrow.”

With United signing Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa over the close season, Ferguson has an embarrassment of riches in his attacking stocks.

But the United boss is more concerned about his options at the back, with the team enduring a spate of injuries to key defenders over the last 12 months.

“I think the key for us is to keep the defenders fit,” Ferguson said. “I mean that because we’ve had a really rough ride with defenders being injured over the last two or three years.

“If they remain fit, then it definitely gives us a better opportunity. I think, in particular, in the attacking part of the team, I think we’re very strong there and hopefully that will make the difference for us.”

United will also meet Romanian side CFR Cluj and Portuguese outfit Braga in Group H.

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-AU
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}