Monday, February 23, 2009

Champions League - United in defensive crisis

Eurosport - Mon, 23 Feb 12:18:00 2009

Manchester United are facing a crisis at the heart of their defence ahead of the Champions League trip to Jose Mourinho's Internazionale.
The defending champions are without the suspended Nemanja Vidic, who is serving a belated ban for his red card in December's World Club Cup final.

However, United boss Alex Ferguson is also missing Wes Brown, Gary Neville, Jonny Evans and possibly John O'Shea for the first leg of their last-16 tie, meaning he may have to start a midfielder at centre-back.

Club captain Neville and Brown are both yet to return to action following bouts on the sidelines through injury, while Evans was substituted during the second half of United's 2-1 win over Blackburn with an ankle problem.

Ferguson's best hope of fielding a recognised defender to partner Rio Ferdinand at centre-back is O'Shea, who was left out of the squad against Rovers to recover from a heel injury.

Evans and O'Shea have both travelled to Milan with the squad, but should they both fail to recover in time, Alex Ferguson may have to charge either Michael Carrick or Darren Fletcher with the task of keeping Zlatan Ibrahimovic at bay at the San Siro, as defensive midfielders Anderson and Owen Hargreaves are also injured.

Ferguson said: "I just hope we can get two centre-backs out because at this moment it's very doubtful. We don't have Vidic, we don't have Gary Neville and we don't have Wes Brown. I just hope we can get John O'Shea available.

"But we're having a nightmare with defenders this season. Gary, Wes and John all missed the Blackburn game and now Evans has done his ankle. Hopefully we can patch up a defence but it does leave us very, very short."

Inter boss Mourinho used his British newspaper column to assert his belief that Vidic should not play any part in the tie.

The big Serb will be eligible for the second leg at Old Trafford, but Mourinho said: "I think Nemanja Vidic should be suspended for both legs, not just this week's game.

"We will certainly try to make things uncomfortable for the United defence without him at the San Siro.

"We have almost the whole squad fit and with the support of our fans and the experience of our players we can make this very, very tough for United."

Mourinho said of Ibrahimovic - the Swedish striker who has scored 14 goals in 24 Serie A appearances this season: "It will not be an open game - we want it to be tight and tactical.

"So the strikers will not have time and room to work in. That makes it important for us that Zlatan Ibrahimovic produces his very top performance."

Tony Mabert / Eurosport

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/23022009/58/champions-league-united-defensive-crisis.html

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