Patrice Evra refuses to believe Manchester United are any
weaker after losing Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez this
summer.
While manager Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted replacing Ronaldo,
who scored 26 goals last season, is going to be difficult, he will
surely be buoyed by the performances of Antonio Valencia, Anderson
and Nani during the Audi Cup over the last few days.
Valencia and Anderson both opened their accounts for the club in
Wednesday's 2-1 win over Boca Juniors while Nani stood out in
Thursday night's penalty shoot-out defeat to Bayern Munich.
And Evra believes United have nothing to worry about in
compensating for the loss of two key members of their team from
last season.
"They are two big players, but the star of the team is the
team," he said. "Two players alone do not make a team. We have
signed some good players and, like I say, Manchester United are a
team and not only about two players.
"I can already see a good team coming along and we are all
confident about doing well with this team as it is."
Evra believes United have made good progress since waving
goodbye to Ronaldo and Tevez.
Although there has been much criticism of their tiring tour of
the Far East, Evra believes it has played an important role in
preparing for the upcoming season.
It has allowed Ferguson to take a look at new options in attack
following the arrival of Michael Owen, who probably should have
scored his fifth goal in as many games at the Allianz Arena last
night.
And Evra is confident the team will be firing on all cylinders
come the start of what he is predicting to be another successful
season for the Red Devils.
"We worked really well in Asia and played some good games, it
was a good tour," he said. "We are moving along bit by bit in
preparation for our first match of the season on August 9 against
Chelsea.
"We want to at least defend the titles we won last season and
try to win the Champions League."
