Boss salutes defensive starlets
Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with Uniteds convincing 4-0
victory over Wigan Athletic, and had particular words of praise for
youngsters Gerard Pique and Danny Simpson who were thrown into the
action.
Pique started the match at right-back, but switched to the centre
to partner Rio Ferdinand just before the half hour mark after both
Nemanja Vidic and John O'Shea had gone off injured.
As a result, Simpson was introduced in the 29th minute and the
20-year-old defender came of age during only his second appearance
for the club, adding an assist to his name following his excellent
cross for Wayne Rooney for United's fourth goal.
Danny's a very confident boy, Sir Alex told MUTV. Hes so quick
and is a tremendous defender. Hes improving his technique all the
time and he is one of the players that I would not consider going
on loan this year because hes valuable to us.
"Pique also came in today and was absolutely outstanding. He was
one our best players against Coventry [in the Carling Cup] and is
improving all the time."
Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for United on 54 minutes after
shaking off two Wigan defenders before calmly slotting past Chris
Kirkland.
The challenges were coming in first from Kilbane and then from the
goalkeeper but he kept his nerve, which I think is the most
important thing in that situation, and composed himself enough for
a good finish, added Sir Alex.
Wigan set their stall out with one up as most teams are doing. But
we got the spark in the second half and earned a good
victory.
Cristiano Ronaldo capped a fine performance with the next two goals
on 59 and 76 minutes, before Wayne Rooney completed the rout after
another clinical move.
It was only his second headed goal for us, acknowledged the
United manager. Wayne should get more [headers] because hes a
good header of the ball. It was a great move and fantastic ball in
from Danny Simpson.
Thats three in three games for Ronaldo and someone said to me do
you really think hell score more than 20? Well just have to see,
but I certainly hope so.