Sir Alex Ferguson's Press Conference - 04/12/12

Sir Alex Ferguson has just finished his press conference at the Europa Suite at Old Trafford ahead of the visit of Cluj tomorrow night in the UEFA Champions League.

As ever, manutd.com and the British media were on hand to take note of everything that was discussed during today’s press conference.

Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck joined Sir Alex Ferguson on the top table for today’s conference.

After slowly recovering from injury, Nemanja Vidic trained with the first-team this morning at Carrington Training Complex in front of the media.

Sir Alex Ferguson started today’s conference with news that he doesn’t think that Vidic is ready for Wednesday:

“I don’t think Nemanja will play. He feels he needs another few days’ training so he won’t be available. He’s not far away. He’s training well now but I think another few days will bring him on better. If he doesn’t play tomorrow there’s no chance he’ll play in the derby game.”

SAF on Manchester United’s defence:

“I think we’re getting punished when the ball’s going into our box at the moment. But we should be defending far better. Albeit, Reading produced some fantastic balls into the box. We should be expecting better. It’s a worry. If we perform like that on Sunday then God knows what’s going to happen to us. When you see the goals against – we’ve lost 32 already – I can’t remember us losing so many goals before Christmas. It’s a concern, there’s no question about that. When you see City have Balotelli, Dzeko – all really tall players – it’s going to be a big challenge. But that’s on Sunday. Tomorrow we’ve got a different game.”

SAF on team selection:

“We’ll rest some players tomorrow, as we did against Galatasaray. But we have to be fair to all the teams who are trying to reach important positions – whether that’s the Champions League or the Europa League. In that respect, we’ll play a team that we expect will win. But there will be changes.”

SAF on the situation in Group H of the Champions League:

“The situation Cluj are in is that they lost to Galatasaray at home, which puts Galatasaray in a stronger position. But Cluj still have an opportunity if they beat us tomorrow. It’s very tight – there’s not much between all three other teams. That’s been shown in the tightness of the group.”

Sir Alex Ferguson also confirmed that Shinji Kagawa started running today in training and is on target to be on the bench for Sunday against Manchester City.

“Kagawa started running today. He may make the bench [against City]. Obviously Nani and Valencia are still out and that’s why I played Rooney on wide right. I thought it was his best performance of the season. Against Cluj I’m picking a team without any thought of Manchester City. It’s a matter of who needs a game.”

Sir Alex Ferguson on Wayne Rooney:

“Wayne needs to play a lot of games to get his match-fitness up. He’s a strong built lad and when he misses two games it takes him three games to come back. It’s the way he’s always been. He’ll play tomorrow night and hopefully that brings him on further. On Saturday, that was his best performance of the season so far.”

Source: Nick Coppack & manutd.com

Enjoy that? Give it a share!