LONG AND HARD SEASON

The Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that this season will be long and hard in terms of the title race. The Manchester United manager was speaking after the 1-0 win over West Ham that helped the team maintain their lead at the top of the table over the second-placed team and arch rivals Manchester City.

Robin van Persie scored the fastest goal so far in the season to help United on their course for a narrow victory over West Ham. This was the 12th goal of the season for the summer signing and it was an extremely deflected effort.

However, Ferguson did not complain about the result of the match as it helped them maintain the one-point advantage over Manchester City. They also increased their advantage over Chelsea to 7 points after the London team could only manage a 0-0 draw with neighbours Fulham. Still, Ferguson has said that he will not rule out Chelsea from the title race because it is still early in the season. Ferguson has also stressed the importance of winning matches 1-0 because it is all about three points in the end. United had a few scary moments, but they were extremely happy to come out the clean sheet in the match.

“The three points means we’re still ahead in the league and, with Chelsea drawing, it draws us away from them a little bit further. But City are on our tails. It’s going to be a long season. The importance of winning 1-0 in certain games is your opponents know the resilience is there. Our 1-0 that night won us the league. There are important 1-0 victories. We’ve had many of them,” said Ferguson after the match. Van Persie is now one short of the goals scored by Luis Suarez in the Premier league.

VIDIC RULED OUT

Federico Macheda’s teammate and captain of Manchester United, Nemanja Vidic, would not be able to play for the team for the next two months. Vidic was feeling a bit of pain in his knee before United’s match against Liverpool on Sunday. So, he didn’t play in that match.

In the post match press conference, Sir Alex Ferguson had said that there was nothing serious about Vidic’s fitness and he would be back for the team’s next Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur which is going to be played on the upcoming Saturday, or against Steven Gerrard‘s Liverpool. But, that is not going to happen.

Yesterday, the Manchester United skipper met a specialist and after the check up, it was found that Vidic had got a major problem and he needed an immediate surgery. He went through the surgery and now, he is out for two months.

It is a huge blow for Manchester United. Two other key defenders of United i.e. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are already out of the team due to injuries. Vidic had to miss the second half of the last season due to knee injury. He managed to get fit at the start of the ongoing season. But, unfortunately, he is out injured again.

One of the spokesmen of Manchester United said, “Nemanja Vidic was having a lot of pain since Sunday’s night and he decided to have a check up. He visited a specialist and the specialist recommended an immediate operation.”
“He would have to remain out of action for the next eight weeks and he would probably be back in the first week of December.”

Now, in the absence of the senior defenders, some of the youngsters could be given the opportunity in the Capital One Cup match against Newcastle on Wednesday. Michael Keane is one of them. The 19 years old Irish defender has featured only once for the senior team of United till now.

It would be interesting to see the composition of the first XI of United in the match against Newcastle.

MACHEDA OFF ON LOAN

Manchester United is on the verge of placing the Italian striker Federico Macheda on loan. According to the reports, the Turkish club, Bursaspor, wants to sign Macheda on a 1 year loan deal and Macheda could be on his way to Italy pretty soon.

Macheda had been placed on loan in the second half of the last season as well. He had played for QPR on loan in the last season. With the inclusion of Robin Van Persie in the United squad, Macheda is not likely to get many opportunities to play in the first XI of United in the 2012-13 season. So, Ferguson is looking to place the striker on loan so that he could remain in match practice.

Macheda had joined United five years ago in September 2007. Initially, he featured for the Youth team of United. He got the opportunity to play for the senior team of Manchester United in April 2009. He played his first match for the senior team against Aston Villa. He came to play as a substitute towards the end of that match and scored a match winning goal in the injury time.

A few days later, Macheda was given the opportunity to start the match for United in the final of the FA Cup against Everton. Alex Ferguson gave Macheda regular chances to play in the first team at the start of the 2009-10 season. But, unfortunately, Macheda injured himself in January 2010 and had to miss a lot of matches due to that. Macheda spent most part of the 2010-11 season playing for the Italian Club Sampdoria on loan.

However, Alex Ferguson hasn’t yet confirmed that Macheda is going to be placed on loan. But, according to the current circumstances, it seems that Macheda might have to spend his third consecutive year on loan.

ANOTHER SEASON ON LOAN

Italian striker Federico Macheda has been linked with a move away from Manchester United on a season long loan deal.

However, due to the failure the player has experienced in the last few transfer windows on loan deals, his agent has revealed that his client would be better off staying at Manchester United and waiting for first-team opportunities.

Federico Macheda has been linked with a loan move to Benfica and Turkish club Besiktas. However, both these moves are yet to materialise, with no official news regarding this.

One of the reasons might be that Federico Macheda has decided not to leave Manchester United on a loan deal.
This has been confirmed by his agent, who has said that his client would get more opportunities at Manchester United due to the departure of Dimitar Berbatov.

Federico Macheda has been at Sampdoria and QPR in the last two seasons, but he failed to play regularly in both the spells due to various reasons. In many ways, his agent believes that he would have had more opportunity to play if he had stayed at Manchester United. The 20-year-old is likely to get his last chance to impress at Manchester United this season.

“I believe that Federico will remain with Manchester United,” said his agent Giovanni Bia in response to a question about his future. Manchester United are ready to sell striker Dimitar Berbatov in the summer.

This might help Federico Macheda get more regular first-team opportunities. Despite the exit of Dimitar Berbatov, Manchester United still have a number of strikers in their books. The likes of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Hernandez are all ahead of Federico Macheda in the pecking order. The Italian made his debut for the club back in 2009 by scoring against Aston Villa, but struggled since then.

DERRY PRAISES MACHEDA EFFORTS

QPR midfielder Shaun Derry has said that it was a superhuman effort from the players to avoid relegation from the Premier league this season. QPR were the favourites to go down immediately from the moment they secured promotion to the Premier league.

Their fears were compounded when manager Mark Hughes arrived at the club, but was unable to get going in the first few matches. Even after the arrival of a number of high profile players, QPR was struggling in the months of January and February. Due to the number of high profile players on the books, QPR would have surely struggled with their finances if they had dropped down to the Championship.

However, incredible wins over top clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham in the final few who matches of the campaign meant that they went into the last match of the season against Manchester City with a real chance of staying up. They suffered a 3-2 defeat in the final few minutes of the match, but that did not matter because Bolton failed to win the match in hand against Stoke. As a result, QPR will stay in the Premier league for another season, in which they are expected to target for a European place following the arrival of number of players.

“Staying up is as important as winning promotion. The celebrations are different because it’s hard to celebrate when you’ve survived by one or two points. But in time this will turn into a monumental season for the club because I’m sure with the owners and the backers the club can progress. People will look back on their first season back in the Premier League and I’m proud to say I was part of it,” said QPR midfielder Shaun Derry, who has been an impressive aspect of their survival.

MACHEDA LINKED TO WIGAN

Manchester United striker Federico Macheda could be in line for a move to Premier League team Wigan athletic in January after failing to establish a first-team place within the squad.

Federico Macheda initially broke into the Manchester United squad a few years ago in the match against Aston Villa. After impressing quite well in the reserves, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to give the youngster – who was signed as a youngster from Italy – a chance, which he grabbed with both hands.

Federico Macheda was responsible for the impressive 3-2 victory for Manchester United in the unlikely of circumstances.

However, since then, he has won the chances limited at Old Trafford. This has led to his loan move to Italy last season. He was expected to play a major role in the Manchester United campaign this season, but it has failed to materialise. As a result, it seems that Sir Alex Ferguson is thinking about sending the youngster back out on loan, but this time to a Premier League team in order to develop some experience about English football.

Wigan athletic are struggling down at the bottom of the table, with both their strikers unable to find the back of the net on a regular basis. Roberto Martinez could be more than happy to welcome Federico Macheda into his squad given the way he has had success with loan players from Manchester United.

Tom Cleverley is the most important player to have graduated from the load experience at Wigan athletic. Tom Cleverley was an important part of the Wigan athletic team that survived the Premier League relegation struggle last season, but he has been quite impressive at Manchester United this season. Many expect Federico Macheda to repeat the success Tom Cleverley has had by going out on loan to Wigan athletic.