Source: Eurosport
United back in business - Fergie
Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced Saturday's victory at Sunderland will prove to be a watershed in Manchester United's season.After sweeping all before them on their return from the Club World Cup in Japan, United have suddenly hit an alarming slump.Successive Premier League defeats to Liverpool and Fulham have been followed after the international break by two more sloppy defensive performances, including the concession of a last-minute equaliser to Porto that left the Red Devils' Champions League defence hanging by a thread.Ferguson admitted Ben Foster made another mistake at the Stadium of Light. But it was the only thing that went wrong in a narrow victory that United's wily manager feels will mark the point in his side's season when confidence began to return."It was a watershed," said Ferguson."The back four played very well and restricted Sunderland to only a few chances because we dealt with their crosses terrifically."Ben is young and inexperienced but apart from that one mistake, the defence was very good. Hopefully from now on we will be fine."United's defence needs to be error free on Wednesday night as they bid to become the first English side to beat Porto on their own ground.Porto clearly do not intend to take anything for granted, hence the presence of skipper Lucho Gonzalez and two team-mates in the upper reaches of the Stadio do Dragao on Tuesday night on a spying mission which apparently went on much longer than the 15 minutes most observers get to watch United train.The Red Devils camp seemed unaware of the intrusion, although as Ferguson admitted the Portuguese champions were the better side at Old Trafford a week ago when they had no opportunity to do any last-minute preparatory work, the benefit to Porto may be debatable.With Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov both set to play, the Red Devils should be a much stronger outfit than they were eight days ago.United will rely on Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to provide attacking to Berbatov.Ferguson was surprisingly critical of Ronaldo at the weekend, when he suggested the Portugal superstar sometimes forgets his responsibilities to team-mates when he is raging at, on occasion imagined, injustices.The Scot was not re-opening debate. But he does not appear to be backing down either."Attacking players are all the same, they prefer to be attacking," said Ferguson."They want to be on the ball all the time. But part of the job is to be part of the team."When you lose possession you have to think about the team."Ferguson did deflect attention away from Ronaldo when he expanded on the suggestion his most talked-about player needed to produce a performance that mattered, claiming he needed every United star to reach their peak."Cristiano is part of our team," said Ferguson."They all have to be up for it. There is no point choosing one individual. They have all got to step up to the plate."Ferguson will be the only manager in the dug-out on Wednesday after opposite number Jesualdo Ferreira was banned for one match by UEFA following a tirade at an official that accompanied a disallowed goal against Atletico Madrid in the previous round.The news came as a surprise to Ferguson, although it did provide him with the opportunity to have a little dig at Rafael Benitez, who has been prodding the United boss with increasing regularity over the last few weeks."Why was he banned? I knew he hadn't attacked me - unlike someone else I know," smiled Ferguson.[LNB]
