Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his Manchester United team they will be vulnerable to another bad defeat against Manchester City unless they drastically improve the „Cartoon Cavalcade” defending that has left their manager contemplating whether they have ever looked so susceptible at the back during his 26 years in charge.Ferguson said he had been dismayed by United’s defensive record and reported „absolutely no chance” of Nemanja Vidic featuring in Sunday’s derby now his captain has pulled out of a possible comeback in their Champions League tie against Cluj at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
This season United have conceded 21 goals from 15 league fixtures, their highest since the corresponding point of the 2001-02 campaign, when they finished third. Between them, Anders Lindegaard and David de Gea have been beaten 32 times in all competitions. Last season at this stage it was 23, though that figure is skewed by the six that were conceded in one match against City. There have been four clean sheets.
Ferguson, who intends to play Wayne Rooney in an otherwise vastly changed lineup against Cluj specifically to hone his sharpness for Sunday, was particularly aggrieved by the defending in Saturday’s 4-3 win at Reading and plans to arrange extra practice at dealing with set pieces before the weekend.
„We’re getting punished for every ball that goes in the box at the moment but, saying that, we should still be defending far better,” Ferguson said. „Reading produced some fantastic balls into the box but we do, and should, expect better. It’s a worry, it’s a concern. If we perform like that on Sunday, then God knows what’s going to happen to us.”
On the face of it, this looks like the least important match of the night, and possibly many other nights. Probably not the least important match ever, but certainly closer to that end of the importance spectrum than the other one, the one with World Cup finals, Liverpool v Arsenal 1989 and Carlisle v Bournemouth 1998 at it.
Manchester United have already won Group H, so this match is little more than an elaborate televised leg-warming exercise for their players. Cluj will definitely still be playing European football in the new year, making this their finest ever season of continental competition, but they do not yet know if this will be in the lucrative Champions League or the less lucrative but still not bad Europa League. So it’s important in Romania. These are the key facts:
• Cluj must better Galatasaray’s result at Braga if they are to stay in the Champions League, but can finish no lower than third, so will probably end up in the Europa League.
• Manchester United have a 100% success rate in their five matches against Romanian teams.
• Daniele Orsato, the referee, comes from Italy. According to Italian Wikipedia, was invited as a special guest of the Romanian Football Federation to officiate this year’s Romanian cup final between Rapid Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest, so he’s clearly got chums in Romania.
• This is quite possibly the weirdest music video I’ve ever seen, at least since the Tracey Ullman one with Neil Kinnock in it. In it some ducks go on a murderous rampage in a council estate. It’s not entirely relevant to tonight, but is a diverting way to spend a few minutes if you’ve got ‘em.
