Sir Alex Ferguson, along with Jonny Evans addressed the media this evening after the squad had flown out from Manchester Airport to Cluj ahead of their Champions League encounter tomorrow night.
Luis Nani posing with fans at Manchester Airport this morning.
Picture (C) Craig Norwood
This evenings press conference was attended by the worlds media along with Gemma Thompson from the manutd.com team, below are quotes from the conference:
Sir Alex Ferguson on Cluj:
“We saw them in the last game against Braga and they’ve beaten Basel twice in the last few years. And Basel knocked us out, so we need to give them every respect. That tells you they’re a good team.”
“They’re a team who defend quickly and get plenty of bodies behind the ball. Their main strength is the counter attack, as they showed against Braga. Counter-attacking is very important in European football these days.”
Sir Alex on the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur:
“You have to be concerned the way we lost goals. We were well off the pace of the game. I don’t think we won a tackle in the first half. We have some work to do in that respect.”
On Evans & Ferdinand partnership:
“At the end of October last season, when Jonny and Rio played consistently every week, we got better. Everyone will tell you that when you have a settled partner beside you then you get a good understanding. That’s something I can hopefully build on in the next few weeks.”
On Shinji Kagawa:
“He’s been terrific. He’s a very good professional, finds space very well and he’s got me two goals. And he could have scored another two! He’s a goal threat. It’s not easy to adapt to English football but bit by bit he’s getting down to that part.”
On starting slowly in the Barclays Premier League:
“If you go back 12 years ago our normal thing was to start slowly and build up to the second half of the season. But when Chelsea won the two titles we changed our pre-season training and had to start quickly. It’s not planned what’s happened this season [starting slowly] but hopefully that will be the last of it.”
Sir Alex on United’s goal scoring:
“I’m delighted with the spread of goals, it doesn’t bother me who is scoring as long as we’re scoring. It’s fantastic to see so many different players scoring.”
On training this morning rather than over in Romania:
“We made the decision because most of the time when you train abroad you can’t do anything because everyone is watching. Training at Carrington this morning allowed us to do things around picking the team and tactics.”
Jonny Evans on tomorrow’s fixture:
“You can’t go away from home in the Champions League and get lucky. Cluj scored two goals and kept a clean sheet. They’re obviously a good side.”
Don’t forget!
Manchester United’s U21s take on Sunderland tonight at 7pm
