Sir Alex answers midfield critics
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Sir Alex Ferguson has responded strongly to criticism of United's midfield and insists he will never make knee-jerk signings aimed at strengthening his team.
In an interview with MUTV, screened on Countdown to Kick-off on Friday evening, the Reds boss was informed that the subject of central midfield had generated plenty of recent debate on the club's TV channel, with some disgruntled fans demanding new signings.
Sir Alex responded by arguing there was "no point" in rushing into the transfer market and that, in fact, the champions have coped remarkably well given the number of injuries in the squad this term, not just in midfield but also at the back.
"Criticism is fine as long as it's balanced," the manager declared. "Anderson and Tom Cleverley have been injured and those two, in particular, have tremendous potential – they’re fantastic young players. So we're missing two very important cogs in the machine.
"Darren Fletcher has had his issues and Michael Carrick has been injured a few times, so we're trying to achieve a consistent midfield operation.
"And it's not just the midfield – you've also got to look at the back four, which we've been changing all the time. We've done exceptionally well in spite of that.
"Everyone's saying 'go out and buy a central midfield player'. Well, I would do that if he were a Manchester United player. If we'd seen a young Bryan Robson or Roy Keane, we'd have been the first there. The possibilities of improving our team are not lost on us."
Sir Alex knew that replacing the retired Paul Scholes would take some time, but he has faith in his policy of promoting from within.
"When you lose a player of Scholes' brilliance, there's a 'time lapse' which allows someone to emerge from the youth or reserve team, or to come back from a loan spell," he explained.
"Cleverley was at Wigan last year and also had spells at Leicester and Watford. He gained maturity from being on loan and we have to wait on and trust that."
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Get him......
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is there really no one in midfield that is fit to play for united? jack rodwell, sneider, VDV etc? VDV wanted to join united but instead united went out to buy a useless Bebe at 7m and missed out on VDV, who costs only 9m when he joined spurs.
fletcher, anderson, carrick, giggs, with the exception of cleverley this season, has been playing for at least 3-4 years already. among them, who is the creator? maybe cleverley, who is a fresh breadth of air at united this season.
