[funkdoctorspock]

We have 36 games to go... 108 pts to fight for... DO NOT LOSE THE FAITH!!!

United may have drawn the first two league games of the season but Sir Alex insists it's no cause for alarm.

"I’m looking at the performances of the team in the first two games and saying to my players, ‘Well done’," the boss said at Friday's press conference.

"We’re dropping points and that’s disappointing and frustrating because the performance levels have been very good. The important thing is to be patient now. The situation is recoverable, of course."

United go into Sunday's Manchester derby without Cristiano Ronaldo, who was sent off at Fratton Park, but Sir Alex was pleased the Reds left Portsmouth with a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, however, none of the long-term injured players have recovered sufficiently to resume match play.

Louis Saha has been training with the first-team squad but is unlikely to take part on Sunday, while new signing Anderson is struggling with a hamstring strain. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's knee is still troubling the Norwegian and Wayne Rooney could be out for two months after breaking a bone in his foot last weekend. That said, not all the news is bad.

"Owen Hargreaves is still feeling the problem of tendonitis in his knee but he is doing some bits of training, which is encouraging," the boss added. "Gary Neville has also been doing bits of training but he's not really near [to playing on Sunday]."
Click

[GocartMozart]

ji-sung park also is out for the season, which really hurts. smudge must be wondering why he left.

for me the biggest loss right now is gary. he's just so necessary to that back line. vocally i think we are missing something without rooney, smudge, keano and neville. the personalities are too timid imo and i want fire on the pitch

[Dirtycheat]

i agree with GCM, i think rossi and smith may ask why on earth they left, because im sure they would have got their chance, especially with the current situation.

i agree with SAF, and i think i said it in the match day thread, performance wise, we did ourselves proud, but we just havent been able to kill off games yet, which has been our strong point last season. its not the end of the world, and i think we will be working on that in training.

and the GCM point about important characters is also very good, totally agree with that. they are the people that can change a game round when things are going rough, and keep the team motivated