Sir Alex Ferguson admits United's unbelievable character
transformed an entertaining game at Southampton, while paying tribute to
several of his stars and not just hat-trick hero Robin van Persie.
Paul
Scholes, Javier Hernandez and Rio Ferdinand were also praised for their
part in overturning a 2-1 deficit at St Mary's in the final stages as
the Reds made the boss' 1,000th league game in charge of the team a
winning one.
"We never give up," he told MUTV.
"Of course, it's in the history books. Well done to the lads for coming
back. We do that all the time at our club and I expect 10 like that a
season so that's one out of the way! It's unbelievable - it really is.
"But
we didn't start playing until Scholes came onto the pitch with his
range of passing, his consistency of passing and his presence turned the
game for us.
"I thought we had reasonable control in the first
half but lost a goal to a back-post cross, something we worked on all
week, but credit to Southampton as they are good at it and put us on the
back foot. We got the equaliser through a fantastic goal from Robin and
I thought it would give us the opportunity to get our act together in
the second half.
"Credit to Southampton, they kept loading the
ball forward and played some nice football in midfield. They were the
better team when they went 2-1 up but, when Scholes came on, the game
changed.
"Robin has got four goals in two starts, which is a great
statistic, and he'll get better. Chicharito also came on and made a
difference. He started stretching them with fantastic runs off the ball
and I was delighted with his performance."
In terms of conceding two goals for a second successive fixture, Sir Alex is convinced his defence will improve.
"I think when you play two centre-backs regularly, you get consistent results," he added. "That's always been the case.
"This
season, we had four centre-backs out and Michael Carrick played back
there with Antonio Valencia at right-back. With the best will in the
world, it's never going to be a perfect solution.
"Rio was back
and did better in the second half. He took time to get into the game in
the first half but ended up playing very well for us. Nemanja Vidic is
getting there. I think if those two keep fit and we get all the
centre-backs fit, it will give us a really good chance.
"In goal,
it was a big decision but I thought David De Gea lost a bad goal last
week. He has to learn quickly, you know. He'll be back after the
international break but Anders had his first game. I thought he was a
little bit nervous at points but he's a very good keeper also. I don't
think it's a big issue but it's something you have to deal with."
Sir Alex was talking to MUTV and Sky Sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment