With Cluj the next visitors to Old Trafford on Wednesday, Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed plans for his back line for the final game in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Manchester United have already secured top spot in the league, meaning that they will be drawn against a team that has finished second in their representative league.
With the surprise news last week that Nemanja Vidic is back in first team training at Carrington, the reds boss might be willing to give him a run out for match fitness ahead of a busy schedule through-out the Christmas period.
Manchester United look set to field a line up which was similar to the one against Galatasaray away, a great experience for many of the young squad members.
Sir Alex Ferguson said:
“I’m hopeful maybe Vidic will play, I think there’s a good chance he will but it depends on how he feels himself.”
“It allows me to give Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Vidic [a game] in a strong back-four and Alexander Büttner would be left-back. There’s a good foundation to start in the game in terms of respecting the challenge between Galatasaray and Cluj [for second place]. I think we’re doing the right thing.”
“I knew Vida was doing really well with the physios, he was doing his football training with them in terms of turning and striking the ball but he came into training last Monday with the first team and did okay.”
“He’s a battler, an absolute competitor. He’s got that dour, uncompromising way of his. He likes defending – that’s what he does.”
Ferguson went on to mention the Champions League and Manchester City:
“City need to beat Borussia Dortmund, I don’t think losing for a big club is very healthy. On one hand you can be fresh for the second half of the season and play a fresh team every week but how do you keep them all happy if they’re out of the League Cup and they go out of the European Cup? I don’t know enough about the City players as I’ve never worked with any of them apart from Carlos Tevez. Sometimes players want to play every week. And you want to keep the momentum going and the interest going.”
Source: manutd.com
