Edwin van der Sar heaped praise on United’s backroom
staff after the Reds’ victory against a physical Bolton side at the
Reebok Stadium.
Van der Sar made a point of bringing fitness coach Tony Strudwick
in front of the MUTV cameras during his post-match interview, in
which he credited the Reds' current form to the work
behind the scenes at Carrington.
“Tony and his team work hard to prepare the players in the best way
possible,” Edwin told MUTV. “A lot of the progress we are making on
the pitch is down to him.
“With his help and the tactics of Rene [Meulensteen], Mick [Phelan]
and the boss, it’s a delight to be here."
Strudwick responsed by saluting van der Sar for his
professionalism on the training ground, as well as his performance
on the pitch following the two crucial saves he made when the score
was at 1-0.
“Edwin’s got a programme in place which he manages himself. He
seems to be getting younger as he goes on,” said Tony. “He made
some terrific saves today and he’s very professional and sets the
standards for everybody."
The fitness coach gave an insight into the challenges of a busy
run-in, with United now getting ready for a trip to Bayern Munich,
swiftly followed by Chelsea at home.
“It can be difficult when you don’t have much time to prepare
between games but the players have a process in place," said
Strudwick.
"They recover well and they are very professional. There are no
days off for them at this stage so it’s important to keep
going.”
Turning to the match itself, van der Sar was pleased with the
performance of his team-mates, particularly Nemanja Vidic, who had
to contest aerial balls all evening. He also admitted United were
delighted to draw first blood with a goal shortly before half
time.
“These sorts of games are ideal for someone of Vida’s quality. He
won a lot of aerial battles when they were putting the high balls
in.”
“You know what you are going to get with Bolton. I’ve been here a
few times now and it’s always like this.
“It was great to get the first goal so we had something to hang on
to. Even after the second goal we were eager to go on and score
more. They could have easily grabbed a goal and got back in it so
it was important to score more.”
The Dutchman also singled out double goal-scorer Berbatov and the
man who created two strikes, Nani.
“Dimitar did really well. He scored twice and Nani also played well
with some great assists and the whole team performed the way you
would have expected us to.”
The Reds went into the game knowing that as well as Arsenal
dropping points, Chelsea had put seven past Aston Villa, but Edwin
insisted the United players remained fully focused on
their own performance, making points the priority rather than
goals.
“It didn’t add too much pressure. We knew that Arsenal drew and
that Chelsea were winning.
“Chelsea have scored twelve goals in two games and that’s a lot. In
the end goals can be decisive so we knew we had to get a few but
the most important thing is the three points, which is hard enough
against a team like Bolton."