Video: Reds on International duty

Zoran Tosic

Nani

United winging it out wide

There was a time when Manchester United wingers struck fear into the hearts of their opponents.

Players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Andrei Kanchelskis and, at his best, Lee Sharpe (Ralph Milne can probably leave the room at this point). Players capable of tearing teams apart with raw speed, a moment of sublime skill or the accuracy and trajectory of a ball delivered from the flanks.

It has become a hallmark of Sir Alex Ferguson's success at Old Trafford down the years. But no more. Giggs is still gracing the Premier League stage, but partly because he has reinvented himself as a more rounded footballer who can also operate in the middle of the park or tucked in behind the striker where he can use his reading of the game and ability to spot and execute a killer pass to maximum effect. Though far from slow at the age of 35, he is no longer the winger who burst onto the scene as a teenager 18 years ago.

That job now falls to the likes of Nani, Antonio Valencia and Park Ji-sung, and would you honestly pick any one of them ahead of their predecessors in a red shirt?

Picture Peter Schmeichel's monster throws releasing Kanchelskis on a lightning counter-attack, Beckham putting it on a plate for Ruud van Nistelrooy, or Ronaldo and Giggs almost single-handedly turning a game, and then ask yourself whether the class of 2009 are capable of doing the same on a regular basis; whether they have the same wow factor.

It is an issue that has so far been largely overlooked at United because Ferguson has more pressing problems elsewhere in his team. The alarmingly bad form of goalkeeper Ben Foster this season has raised serious doubts over his claims to succeed the ageing Edwin van der Sar at United, never mind becoming England's new No.1.

The defensive lapses that have undermined the previously impregnable defensive partnership between Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic is another worry, as are concerns that the champions lack the quality in midfield to rival the likes of Frank Lampard or Cesc Fabregas.

Ferguson's high-octane attack is no longer what it used to be, either, with an over-reliance on Wayne Rooney and continuing fears that the enigmatic Dimitar Berbatov and hired gun Michael Owen do not compensate for the loss of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

That relies in part on the service they get from the wings, and there is little doubt United also are weaker in this department as well. Indeed, when Nani announced in June that he was the man to step into Ronaldo's shoes, you could almost hear the laughter all the way from Old Trafford to Lisbon.

Some would suggest that, on current form, the comparisons between the two men start and end with the fact they are both Portuguese and can usually be found playing on the wing. That may seem harsh on Nani but there is little doubt that instead of stepping up to replace the World Player of the Year following his £80 million move to Real Madrid, he has actually taken a significant step backwards this season.

Over-elaborate and ineffective, he is guilty of often choosing the wrong option and taking five touches when one would suffice - in fact, everything a teenage Ronaldo was doing before United's coaching staff got hold of him, so maybe there is hope for his compatriot yet.

Nani's shortcomings were painfully evident at Stoke last month when he was hooked by Ferguson just ten minutes into the second half after an infuriatingly inept display that brought a chorus of "you'll never be Ronaldo" from the home fans, and probably a few United supporters as well.

His replacement, the evergreen Giggs, came on to turn the game by setting up both United's goals, the first with a simple square ball to Berbatov that only demonstrated where Nani had been going wrong. It came just a week after Giggs' sublime pass had played in Owen to win the Manchester derby. Moments of brilliance like these - not the occasional long-range goal or head-over-heels celebration - show real star quality, and few would dispute that Nani has failed to progress from the young player who showed such potential two years ago.

Of course any United winger is likely to suffer by comparison with Ronaldo and Giggs, arguably the two greatest wide players in the history of the Premier League, not to mention Beckham and Kanchelskis in his Old Trafford pomp or, for those with longer memories, the great George Best. But can you honestly say Park is a player to set the pulse racing?

Often selected by Ferguson in games against United's Big Four rivals in recent years, the South Korean has been used sparingly this season despite signing a new contract last month.

With the roving Ronaldo in full flow all over the field, in the past Park could be deployed as an effective counterweight. He was a player who was more than happy to track back and get a foot in; the roundhead to complement United's resident cavalier. With Ronaldo long gone, he just looks plain ordinary and a record of 12 goals in more than four seasons at United hardly marks him out as a major threat to the opposition.

As for Valencia, some would say it is too early to judge, and they may be right. However, let us not forget that we are talking here about an £18 million acquisition who had already made his name in the Premier League and found his way onto Real Madrid's radar, not a minor investment for the future.

Even his old supporters at Wigan would accept that Valencia lacks the panache of many great wingers, and there have been few signs so far that he is going to set the world alight in a United shirt.

Of course, Ferguson signed another young player capable of operating on the wing last summer, and in Gabriel Obertan we really do have something of an unknown quantity. Reports from Carrington indicate that Obertan may finally be ready to make his debut after arriving from Bordeaux with a back injury.

Ironically, the last young French winger/forward that Ferguson signed in the hope of turning him into the next Thierry Henry can be found in a Bordeaux shirt these days. And if proof were required that he doesn't always get it right, we need only look at David Bellion.

By Chris Peterson

Ferguson steps up Defour interest

MANCHESTER United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has stepped up his interest in Steven Defour, sending the injured Standard Liege captain a letter reassuring him that he continues to monitor his progress.

Defour, who is under contract until 2013, was heavily linked with a move to a bigger club in the summer with Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City reportedly interested, while Everton had a £9million bid for the Belgium midfielder turned down.

Any hope of a January transfer evaporated when the Belgium midfielder broke a bone in his foot last month but Ferguson is closely following his recovery.

The letter, which has been released to the media, reads: "Dear Steven, I have just heard about your injury and, in the name of Manchester United, I would like to wish you a full and speedy recovery.

"I am sure at the moment you must be feeling awful and that you'll have all kinds of questions.

"Steven, these are natural worries but I have to tell you that modern medicine and treatments are incredible, you have to have confidence in them.

"I'm going to follow your progress closely and I will remain in contact with your club to have news of your recovery."

Defour was delighted to receive Ferguson's letter but the 21-year-old was swift to point out that the Barclays Premier League club had done everything by the book and had sent it to his club to pass onto him.

"One thing I should like to highlight is that Ferguson has followed his interest officially," Defour told Het Laatste Nieuws. "He addressed the letter to Standard.

"I think the attention is great, but I do not want people think I am already at Manchester, which is no means the case.

"But if they come knocking, then I would obviously not cause problems."

Defour, who is rated as one of the most promising players in Belgium, is targeting the match against Anderlecht on January 16 for his comeback date.

Rio Ferdinand must silence his doubters, says Oliver Kay

Times Football Correspondent discusses the key issues ahead of England's World Cup qualifying match against Belarus. He talks to Ben Smith.

How important is it for Rio Ferdinand to have a blemish-free game tonight?
He needs a good game to put the current question marks over his form and fitness to bed. If, for example, he makes another serious mistake that leads to a goal then it will mean the questions surrounding his form will drag onto the friendly against Brazil and the microscope will be on him over the next few weeks and months.

Ferdinand needs to remind people - the media and supporters rather than Fabio Capello - what a good player he is and that although these mistakes happen they remain the exception rather than the rule. When the World Cup starts he has got to be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Do England need an in-form Ferdinand to have any chance of performing well in South Africa next summer?
It is easy to over-hype our players in England but if you look at the past five years, there haven't been many better defenders in world football.

For people to suddenly question whether Ferdinand should make way for Matthew Upson is a bit nonsensical. He should be as close as it gets to an automatic selection. Having said that if he is making mistakes on a consistent basis then questions do have to be asked and alternatives may have to be looked at. But Ferdinand remains a top-class player and I don't see a crisis there.

It is a big night for Michael Owen and Gabriel Agbonlahor for very different reasons. How do you see that situation unfolding?

Michael Owen will be one of 20 or 30 players watching from an executive box at Wembley, having been invited there by Capello as a "we're thinking of you" gesture. In a way it serves as a reminder of just how far Owen's star has fallen. He will be there with people like David Bentley, who struggles to get on the Tottenham bench these days, David Wheater and Joe Lewis, the Peterborough United goalkeeper. It will be a very strange experience for Owen.

If Agbonlahor comes in and takes his opportunity, Owen will be there to witness his international prospects diminishing in front of his eyes. On the other hand if England's strikers don't perform, Owen will be thinking their limitations have been exposed and that he can get back in.

It will be interesting to see if Capello speaks to those players he has invited along either before or after the game. That would be a good gesture and I am sure it is something he is thinking about it.

If Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey and Jermain Defoe are all but on the plane, does that leave Carlton Cole, Peter Crouch, Agbonlahor and Owen fighting for two places?
There is a possibility that Capello will only take four strikers because he has Theo Walcott, who he could take as a fifth striker. That might allow him to take Aaron Lennon and David Beckham, which would give him a few options.

We have understood in the past that Owen and Defoe are competing for one place. On the evidence of the first month of the season that has been no contest. But if, and it is a very big if, Owen starts scoring goals regularly for Manchester United, then he could force a rethink.

It is not realistic or sensible to look at one goal against Manchester City, albeit an extremely well-taken goal, as a reason why Owen deserves to go to the World Cup. That goal is pretty much the sum total of what he has done in 2009, so he has got an awful lot of work to do.

Will tonight be a chance for Capello to put England's plan B into practice?
England will line up in a 4-4-2 formation but there will be no Rooney or Steven Gerrard and perhaps no Heskey. For that reason it is probably a long way off the real plan B. It will almost be a shadow England team, but it is an opportunity for people like Crouch and Agbonlahor to show that they deserve to be on the plane to South Africa.

It could be an interesting night for Ben Foster. What does he have to prove tonight?
It has not been confirmed that Foster will start but I understand that may be the case. He wasn't in the original squad because of the injury he picked up in the warm-up for Manchester United's game against Sunderland.

Capello didn't even call him up when Paul Robinson dropped out and yet now he has the opportunity to play because of Robert Green's suspension and David James's injury.

It is a big opportunity but there will be a lot of pressure on him. In a lot of the big games he has played, both for England and United, he has made mistakes. So he has to prove he is worthy of being the third goalkeeper, let alone England's No 1, as some people believed he should have been less than a month ago.

 

Man Utd International Games

International Reds

World Cup Qualifiers, 14 October:
Bulgaria v Georgia
Dimitar Berbatov
England v Belarus
Brown, Carrick, Ferdinand, Foster
France v Austria
Patrice Evra
Lithuania v Serbia
Nemanja Vidic
Portugal v Malta
Nani
Rep of Ireland v Montenegro
Darron Gibson, John O'Shea
Chile v Ecuador
Antonio Valencia
South Korea v Senegal (friendly)
Ji-sung Park

Van der Sar tips Foster to bounce back from criticism

Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar claims that team-mate Ben Foster will overcome the criticism he has faced in recent weeks after a period of indifferent form for the Premier League champions.

Van der Sar has been sidelined with a hand injury picked up in pre-season and, while Foster has been filling in for the veteran, he has been at fault for a number of goals in recent games, most notably against Manchester City and Sunderland last week when he allowed Kenwyne Jones to leap above him to score.

Reports in the media on Tuesday suggested that United may move for Portsmouth 'keeper David James in January, but Van der Sar admits he will be looking to reclaim his first-team place and is also backing his rival to bounce back even stronger.

"Ben certainly has the strength of character to overcome what he has been through and how he deals with it will shape the player he will be," Van der Sar told the Daily Telegraph. "He is a very strong. I have sympathy for him, but I have no worries about him. Nobody has clear path in their career. You go up and down and you just have to make sure that the downs are not as deep as the ones you go up.

"I had similar things when I was young. That is what makes you the man you become as a goalkeeper."

Van der Sar returned to action for United's reserves against Everton last week and admits he is ready to fight for his first-team place.

"I want my place back," he added. "Playing in the reserves last Tuesday was an ideal moment for me to get a game under my belt before the Premier League begins again after the international break. I needed a game."

Sir Alex Ferguson to offer second apology over Alan Wiley attack

• Manager's explanation of remarks due to FA by Friday
• Referee's union calls for Uefa-style match-day ban

Sir Alex Ferguson is to offer a second apology over his controversial comments about Alan Wiley's fitness, this time to the Football Association, in an attempt to avoid a misconduct charge.

Manchester United's manager has until Friday to explain to the FA the personal attack on Wiley that followed his team's draw with Sunderland on 3 October, when he publicly questioned the official's fitness for Premier League games.

Ferguson sought to defuse the subsequent furore at the weekend when he issued an apology on the club's website for "any personal embarrassment" his remarks may have caused Wiley and he is expected to offer a similar but more detailed apology – again stopping short of an unreserved one – in his submission to the FA. A letter is understood to have been drafted by United for his approval on return from a holiday in New York.

The FA will not be swayed by Ferguson's initial apology and will only decide whether to charge him once it has received his written explanation for the outburst. It is expected that the United manager will be charged, particularly as the governing body wrote to every Premier League manager at the start of the season to instruct them not to comment about match officials.

The initial apology was dismissed as "half-hearted" by the professionals' union, Prospect, today. The union has called for Ferguson to be severely sanctioned for his comments with a charge of defamation also under consideration. The FA has declined to comment on the demands or the Scot's apology, and insists its response will come only after its Disciplinary and Governance Unit has considered Ferguson's explanation.

"I think it's a half-hearted apology at best really, and it probably exacerbates the position, rather than resolving it," Alan Leighton, the national secretary of Prospect, said. "He clearly hasn't retracted the statement about Alan being unfit so it's not an apology for the main offence caused, and then he widens it to question the fitness of other referees, so he seems to be opening another can of worms which I don't think is very helpful at all.

"Referees are very fit. They have sports scientists who test them regularly throughout the season. They don't just pass a fitness test at the start of the season. Their body fats and BMI are regularly monitored, there are get-togethers every two or three weeks where they are put through extensive training and testing."

Ferguson is facing a possible fine or touchline ban for comments that reportedly led Wiley to consider his future in the game. Prospect, however, believes the United manager should be banned from having any contact with his players on match-days.

Leighton added: "I think the punishment should be a Uefa-type coaching ban, which is rather more than a touchline ban. Referees always accept decisions are going to be pored over. They have no problem with legitimate criticism. What's problematic is when the integrity and key components of refereeing are being questioned in a totally unwarranted and unfounded way, and we will defend our members when they are."

Ferguson is said to be furious at what he sees as both a media witch-hunt against him and a campaign by the refereeing fraternity to strike at him. Official ProZone statics showed that Wiley ran further than all but four United players in the match against Sunderland.

Wiley is set to take charge of Wigan's high-profile game at home to Manchester City on Sunday, in a sign of backing from the referees' manager, Keith Hackett.

Rio Ferdinand backed by Steve Bruce amid criticism following England loss

Former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce defended Rio Ferdinand following the England centre-half's lapse in the World Cup qualification defeat to Ukraine. 

Bruce, the Sunderland manager, has called for the United defender's mistakes to be seen in perspective after Ferdinand erred badly in the 1-0 defeat on Saturday and claimed his lack of match fitness was to blame for uncharacteristic gaffes.

"I think that to be fair to Rio he has made a couple of mistakes but we haven't seen him make a couple of mistakes in years and over the last few years he has matured into one top-class central defender," Bruce said. 

"When you analyse the big games he has played for England or Manchester United, his mistakes are very few and far between. Obviously now he has made a couple of mistakes and people are on his back.

"We have a trait in our country where we all jump on each other very quickly but the kid has played fantastically well for years now and he has had a couple of high-profile mistakes.

"We made a couple of mistakes and went down to ten men and at that level no matter who you are playing, especially Ukraine who needed a result; it was always going to be difficult and rightly so."

Bruce, who played more than 300 games for United from 1987 to 1996, is20 backing Old Trafford counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson to get Ferdinand back on track when their Premier League title challenge resumes this weekend.

"I think that Sir Alex will do what he normally does," Bruce said. "He will pull him aside and says don't worry about anyone else just please me and do that by putting in a performance for Manchester United and I'm sure he will

"The biggest thing for Rio is for him to play regularly. I don't care how good you are, if you're not playing week-in, week-our then you are going to find it very difficult and for Rio in particular to get himself 100 per cent fit and get back playing every week.

"In the intensity of an international game and in the Premier League in my experience it's vitally important you play every week

"I did it a couple of weeks ago with Lee Cattermole, he hadn't played, he hadn't trained for two weeks after the Under-21s and I put him back in against Wolves and it was too early and he's just a boy of 21. You learn from that."

Bruce has told striker Darren Bent that he will have to maintain his current form that yielded Sunderland seven goals this term to force his way into England head coach Fabio Capello's plans for the World Cup finals next summer.

"With Darren I've just told him to keep playing the way you have done,"

Bruce added. "He's been a breath or fresh air for Sunderland. He plays with a smile on his face. He enjoys being Sunderland's centre-forward and all he can do is keep doing what he has been doing, if he keep performing then he's got to gave a chance.

"We haven't got a great batch of strikers, in my day in the 1990s I could give you ten including (Les) Ferdinand, (Ian) Wright, (Alan) Shearer, (Peter) Beardsley, (Teddy) Sheringham and there were lots more.

"But at the moment Mr Capello is very loyal and you seem to find that with the big managers. They are very loyal to the people that have done well for them.

"It's a double-edged sword for a manager. You want your international ones to do well in internationals but I've been scouring the papers to see how the lads got on that went away."

Sunderland face Liverpool this Saturday at the Stadium of Light and Bruce will be banking on Bent and his team-mates to maintain their promising start to the season against faltering Premier League title challengers.

"We have started okay but it would have been a fantastic start if we'd held on last week at Old Trafford," Bruce said.

"All in all with the changes that we have made 15 players have gone and seven have come in – it has been a decent start and hopefully I can continue the good work because it is a terrific club."

 

Sir Alex apologises to ref

This statement is made with reference to comments following Manchester United versus Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League on 3 October 2009.
Sir Alex Ferguson has issued the following statement:

“I apologise to Mr Wiley for any personal embarrassment that my remarks may have caused and to The FA for going public with my views.

“In retrospect, I accept that this could be deemed as expressing those views in an inappropriate forum. 

“It was never my intention to bring the focus of intense media attention on Mr Wiley. I intend to contact him personally after I return from a trip overseas during this international break.

“I would wish it to be noted that I have always respected Mr Wiley’s integrity and that I did not state or imply:

·         that Mr Wiley is a bad referee;
·         that he was in any way biased;
·         that decision-making generally during the game was poor, or
·         that he missed any key incident during the game.“My only intention in speaking publicly, was to highlight what I believe to be a serious and important issue in the game, namely that the fitness levels of referees must match the ever increasing demands of the modern game, which I hope will now be properly addressed through the appropriate formal channels.”
Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers’ Association, said:

“In March 2009 the LMA and the PFA published the document Refereeing : A Professional Way Forward, which contains recommendations in respect of supporting referees and improving overall standards and is complimentary to the Respect Programme.

"The aim of the document was to produce a set of serious proposals which would improve the selection, training, assessment and professionalism of referees at the top level of English football. The conclusions and recommendations of the review are compelling.”

Vidic joins World Cup party

Nemanja Vidic and Zoran Tosic's Serbia are the latest 'United Nation' to qualify automatically for South Africa 2010 - at the expense of Patrice Evra's France.

As Group 7 leaders in Europe, the Serbs confirmed their likely passage to the World Cup finals in emphatic style on Saturday, hammering Romania 5-0. Vidic played for 73 minutes while Tosic was an unused substitute.

The French also won 5-0, against the Faroe Islands, to confirm their runners-up spot. Evra completed the 90 minutes and can now plan for the play-offs in November.

Nani is another United player pinning his World Cup hopes on the play-offs, after Portugal's group was won by Denmark at the weekend. The Portuguese beat Hungary 3-0 in Lisbon - despite Cristiano Ronaldo limping off after 15 minutes - and will definitely enter November's knock-out phase if they overcome Malta on Wednesday.

The play-offs beckon for John O'Shea and the Republic of Ireland, following their impressive - but ultimately disappointing - 2-2 draw with the reigning world champions in Dublin. The Irish twice led in the match and when Sean St Ledger put them 2-1 up in the 87th minute, they seemed all set to cut Italy's lead in Group 8 to one point with one game remaining. However, Alberto Gilardino's last-gasp leveller ensured the Azzurri's automatic berth and a play-off place for O'Shea, Darron Gibson and their compatriots.

Bulgaria's chances of overtaking the Irish were wiped out in Cyprus, despite Dimitar Berbatov finding the net. His strike on the brink of half-time turned out to be a mere consolation goal in a demoralising 4-1 defeat.

Antonio Valencia was the other United man to score at the weekend but like Berba, he was on the losing side too. Ecuador are now in danger of missing the World Cup after losing 2-1 at home to Uruguay, courtesy of Diego Forlan's injury-time penalty.

Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney also suffered a defeat, losing 0-1 with the already-qualified England in Ukraine. Their cause wasn't helped by West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green being sent off in the 13th minute.