Sir Alex Ferguson's dilemma over which goalkeeper should be his No 1 was
revealed last night when he snapped at a TV presenter, accusing her of "looking
for stupid little things" by asking if £18.5m David de Gea might be
dropped for Sunday's match against Chelsea.
Danish goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard, who has made no secret of his belief that
he has a call on being first-choice, pulled off two fine late saves to
preserve Manchester United's 1-1 Champions League draw at Benfica. The
dilemma created prompted Ferguson to lose his tempter with the ITV presenter
Kelly Cates, the daughter of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish. "David
de Gea will play on Sunday. That was the understanding we had before the
game. I don't know why you ask these questions," Ferguson told Cates.
His response to Cates came 23 years after Ferguson complained of managers
leaving Anfield "choking on their own vomit", prompting Dalglish
to reply reporters would get more sense out of his then six-week-old
daughter Lauren than from Ferguson. Cates – then Kelly Dalglish – was a
Setanta pitch side reporter in 2008 when she told Ferguson she wanted to ask
him about a Christmas party that led to the arrest of Jonny Evans over rape
allegations. Ferguson declined.
On a night when United and Manchester City both rescued 1-1 draws after
falling behind – City through a 74th-minute Aleksandar Kolarov goal in a
captivating Champions League debut at home to Napoli – Lindegaard reasserted
that he wants to be No 1. Asked about challenging for the first-team spot,
the 27-year-old said: "What answer do you expect to that question? I've
said a thousand times before I'm not here to pick my nose."
Ferguson later reiterated his faith in De Gea. "I was very impressed with
Anders, but we've got two great goalkeepers actually, in Anders and David,"
he said. "We were always getting to the moment when we were going to
share that. David will play against Chelsea on Sunday and possibly Anders
will play against Leeds United on Tuesday. There are opportunities to spread
that load, because coming over to the English game [for De Gea], it's such a
competitive intense league for a young goalkeeper. There will come a time
when I need to give him a break."
Lindegaard was not selected for United's win at Bolton last Saturday, despite
Ferguson apparently giving serious thought to protecting De Gea from the
aerial threat which punished him at West Bromwich Albion on the opening
weekend of the season. "It was very amusing, great fun and that's the
most important part of why you play football – fun," said
Lindegaard about facing Benfica. "There's always a bit of nerves and if
there isn't then it's not that enjoyable. It makes me feel alive. I'm
satisfied with my performance, just a bit sad that I didn't save the first
goal."
United's 1-1 draw in Lisbon was secured by a goal which takes Ryan Giggs ahead
of Denis Law in the list of United goalscorers in Europe, with 39. It was a
strike of "terrific quality," Ferguson said.
The City manager, Roberto Mancini, blamed his team's "nervousness"
on their Champions League debut against Napoli last night in which they had
to come from a goal behind to seize a draw through Kolarov's second half
free-kick.
With Bayern Munich seizing the initiative with a 2-0 win over Villarreal in
Spain, Group A looks daunting for City. They fell behind to Edinson Cavani's
goal on 69 minutes after a mistake by Gareth Barry. Asked whether his team
had been naive at times, Mancini said: "Yes, absolutely, But I'm happy
with our performance. In the first half we played well."
He added: "I think before the game we were so nervous because it was the
first [Champions League match for the club]. All the players wanted to win
this game and they all wanted to score. If we play easy, simple, we can play
better. But it was the first game, I enjoyed it, and against Naples that was
a good result.
"I never said that we are like Barça. I think we need to improve like a
team, we have fantastic players. Every game in the Champions League is
different and difficult, for us it's important to play simple football."
On the goal City conceded, Mancini said: "A team like us can't concede a
goal like this. When we lost that ball we didn't have any midfielders in
front of the defenders and for 10 minutes we left a lot of space for the
Napoli players."