Sir Alex Ferguson is confident Manchester United's five Premier
League defeats will not prove terminal to their hopes of retaining
their title.
After a decent start to life without Cristiano Ronaldo, the
Red Devils have suddenly hit major trouble.
With up to eight senior defenders missing at times since
mid-November, United have lost twice in three games, against Aston
Villa and Fulham, and deserved nothing more on each occasion.
They have been hefty blows to take, particularly at a time
when United tend to start hitting top gear.
The only saving grace is that no-one else is doing any
better. Liverpool already seem to be out of contention, Arsenal are
finding it difficult to string a sequence of results together away
from the Emirates Stadium while favourites Chelsea, while
establishing a four-point cushion at the top, needed a late Frank
Lampard penalty to secure a home win against Portsmouth and another
just to eke out a draw against West Ham last Sunday.
It is Villa and Tottenham who are capturing most attention,
yet both have already dropped enough points to suggest they would
struggle to maintain a level of form that would get them into
contention to challenge for number one spot.
"It is an unusual league," said Ferguson. "Arsene Wenger said
you could lose seven games and win the title this season. That is
the way it is going.
"Someone also pointed out the recognised top four have lost
41 points this season. No-one would have bet on that.
"And there are more banana skins on the way I am sure.
"We just have to try and make sure we are not one of them."
It is not easy though given the injury list Ferguson has had
to cope with. So desperate is their plight at present that he was
even wistfully wondering whether Bill Foulkes, a legendary member
of the 1968 European Cup-winning side and a Munich air crash
survivor, might be worth calling up for Sunday's trip to Hull.
Under the circumstances, the Scot is probably extremely
thankful United's Festive programme has been altered, meaning that
instead of being in action on Boxing Day and then again on December
28, his own team's games will take place on the 27th and the 30th,
when Wigan go to Old Trafford.
By then he hopes to have Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown
available after calf and hamstring problems, respectively.
United's medical staff are working feverishly to get one of
them on the pitch at the KC Stadium, while teenage Brazilian
brothers Rafael and Fabio Da Silva are being pushed ahead of
schedule to make the trip across the M62.
"Hull will be encouraged by the fact we have these defenders
injured," said Ferguson.
"They will certainly have a go at us."
After watching his team disintegrate at Craven Cottage - a
defeat the chaos at Manchester City has helped deflect attention
away from - Ferguson is reluctant to place his trust in Michael
Carrick and Ritchie De Laet at the heart of his defence.
The United chief is not being particularly critical of either
man's performance at Fulham, where they were joined in a back three
by Darren Fletcher.
He just feels the attempts to patch up an area of the field
vital for positive results were bound to show extreme weaknesses at
some point.
"You can get away with playing midfielders in central defence
once or twice but it proved difficult last Saturday," he said.
"We were doing okay until we lost the goal but we looked
fragile from there on."
Ferguson defended his tactics, claiming once United reverted
to a more conventional four-man backline, there were even more
"holes" for Fulham to pour through.
In fact, he feels it was the Villa loss that was more
damaging and, with Jonny Evans' calf problem leaving him third in
the queue for potential comebacks ahead of an FA Cup tie with Leeds
on January 3, he can only hope no further damage is inflicted over
the coming days.
"It was a killer result for us because winning your home
games can stabilise things," said Ferguson.
"It is unusual for us to lose two games in December. It has
not happened many times here.
"What we have to do is get these two games out of the way
because I am hopeful that by the time we play Leeds we should have
three centre-backs fit.
"That would make a heck of a difference. Then we can kick on
and get back to our normal selves."
