19 verkar vara den magiska siffran. Helgens seger mot Norwich innebär att United nu vunnit fler hemmamatcher på raken än någonsin tidigare i klubbens historia.
Det var inte någon uppvisning i fotbollens vackra konst men det blev tre poäng i lördagens match på Old Trafford. Oavsett hur det såg ut på planen blev matchen en historisk milstolpe.
Aldrig förr hade Manchester United vunnit 19 raka hemmamatcher. Klubbrekord. Sir Alex var inte helt nöjd med hur vi vann mot Norwich, men kunde inte låta bli att glädja sig över ett fantastiskt hemmafacit.
”You couldn’t say that was a good performance today but it was gritty and determined as we always are and we never give in which is a fantastic quality. Our home record has been fantastic over the last year. Only the draw against West Brom (oktober 2010) has spoiled it a bit. It would have been a really fantastic record otherwise. We still remain undefeated at home in the league (sedan Chelsea, april 2010)”, sa Sir Alex Ferguson till ManUtd.com.
Det blev till sist 2-0 men segern satt långt inne. United lyckades inte skapa många målchanser mot ett kompakt lag som packade in sig i sitt straffområde. Norwich lyckades dessutom skapa en mängd chanser genom sina kontringar.
”Norwich just stuck to their box and hit long balls and they got a few counter attacks out of that and caused us a few problems. In fact, they probably got something out of every counter-attack. That put us under pressure a lot. Norwich’s counter-attacks could have hurt us”, fortsatte Sir Alex.
Bortalaget skulle ha tagit ledningen i matchen när Anthony Pilkington kom fri med Anders Lindegaard i 65:e minuten.
”It was an incredible chance for them. Antonio (Valencia) got caught dallying on the ball a bit and he (Pilkington) has knocked it wide. You thought with that chance he’s got to hit the target so it was a break for us”, var Sir Alex kommentar.
Anderson oväntad hjälte
Istället knoppade Anderson in 1-0 till United bara tre minuter senare. Något som enligt bossen var ganska oväntat.
”You don’t expect Ando to score with a header, do you? But you take a goal from anyone. Norwich still continued to have a go at us after that and it was quite an exciting game then.”
Danny Welbeck byttes in och satte sitt tredje mÃ¥l pÃ¥ en vecka – sitt femte för säsongen. Javier Hernandez hade fram tills dess inte haft nÃ¥gon lyckad afton.
”I just felt we needed someone to get hold of the ball up front. Chicharito in this particular game just didn’t have the spaces he normally gets. Danny came on and improved us a bit.”, sa Sir Alex.
De Gea och Young saknades
Sir Alex fick efteråt förklara varför David de Gea och Ashley Young inte spelade. De Gea satt på bänken medan Young inte ens fanns med i matchtruppen.
”It was an opportunity to play Anders because he doesn’t have a game for two weeks. He goes away with Denmark but he’s not in the team whereas David’s got two games with Spain’s Under-21s. So it was a good opportunity to give Anders a turn”, sa Sir Alex till MUTV.
”Ashley got a little knock and it wasn’t worth risking him because of the games we’ve got coming up, including Liverpool in two weeks’ time. There are internationals of course but I think he’ll be okay for England, he should be alright. He just wasn’t right today.”
Young förväntas kunna spela för sitt England under landslagsuppehållet.
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