| By Shaun Barrio,
on 19-05-2006 23:08
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The Boss Looks Back
For those of you who missed Sir Alex Ferguson's end-of-season interview on MUTV, here's a transcript of the first part. The full 25-minute video can now be seen on Channel 2 of MU.tv (mu.tv.manutd.com)...
Sir Alex, what was your assessment of the campaign, after finishing eight points behind Chelsea?
“We have to look at the areas we feel we need to improve in terms of catching Chelsea’s points total. They only dropped two points at home - they drew one match and didn’t lose any – and even when you look back at all the teams that have won the championship, that's exceptional. So we look at our home form first of all as we look to bridge that gap. We only lost one game at home, to Blackburn, but we drew five games. If we’d reduced that, we’d have been in the ballpark.
“We have to make Old Trafford a fortress again, we have to make sure it’s a place where no one is going to get points. That would be a starting point. But you have to be a bit more analytical than that and recognise that the start of the season was a nightmare in terms of injuries.
“Getting injuries like we did in the early season stops you from building momentum and denies you the consistency and the confidence you need in the camp. That’s happened to us two or three times in the past few years.
“This season we started with Louis Saha being injured in pre-season and he was out until November. Quinton Fortune got injured in a training session just a week before the season started and he was out for the season. But we handled those two blows and started August very well, the first few weeks were excellent.
"Then Gary Neville injured his groin, Roy Keane got his metatarsal injury, and we had Gabriel Heinze’s knee injury. That meant we had five players out, that’s half a team missing by the second or third week of September. I think that really created a lack of experience in terms of the European campaign.
"We were disappointed when Wayne Rooney got sent off away to Villarreal, and Paul Scholes got sent off in the home match against Lille. They were handicaps we couldn’t overcome - playing with ten men for more than half an hour in each game.
"If we had won just one of those two games, we would have qualified for the next round. Our outstanding form in the second half of the season would have given us a chance in the European Cup this year."
How do you assess the strength of your squad as we look ahead to next season?
"Maybe we need a stronger pool than what we used to have. In January we brought in Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra and they’ve given us a more solid look in terms of numbers for the back four positions, adding to the likes of Phil Bardsley and Gerard Pique. There’s a bit of youth coming through there, plus the experience of Gary Neville, Mikael Silvestre and Rio Ferdinand, and Gabi Heinze coming back. So I’m far more comfortable with the defensive part than I was last year.
“The midfield area is an area that everyone keeps talking about - I probably talk about it too much myself! It’s not easy to get Roy Keanes. We’ve been looking for two or three years, as we did when Bryan Robson was getting to the end of his career. We looked for a new Bryan Robson and fortunately we were very lucky to get Roy Keane.
"That scenario is on us again. We've got to get a Roy Keane and we've got to complete that quest in terms of getting that type of player who can influence not just the dressing room but also on the field. We have some ideas in mind in that respect, maybe not exactly a Roy Keane-type but players who would add to the midfield abilities we already have. “
"One of the benefits of Roy was, even though he was from the Republic of Ireland, it was like he was British, so there was no problem in terms of his culture and the language. He was like a Manchester lad really because we brought him here from Nottingham at a young age.
"In the present situation where we're looking for a Roy Keane there is no-one, believe me, absolutely no-one of that type in the English game. There are some good players in the English game but not a Roy Keane-type.
"When we look abroad we have to take into consideration that he's not going to be a Roy Keane in terms of his influence in the dressing room because of culture, language, things like that. He will be a different type of player but hopefully somebody who has the qualities we need."
Source: manutd.com Last update : 19-05-2006 23:08
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