Reds have pitch concerns
Sir Alex was afforded his first glimpse of the Estadio Jose
Alvalade's pitch when the Reds trained at the ground on Tuesday
night.
Nineteen United players spent an hour on the turf, running through
light ball-work, a half-field simulation match and attacking
exercises before finishing with a thorough stretching session. The
grass, however, appeared patchy in places and came away from its
roots on a number of occasions.
"The pitch isn't great," the manager said. "It's cutting up badly
and they have a problem with that. I think one half of it is worse
than the other.
"We played here for the opening of the stadium in 2003 and we had
terrible problems with the pitch on that day. I don't think they've
ever sorted the problems. They've renewed the turf this summer but
they're still having the same problems."
United squad at training on 18
September: Van der Sar, Kuszczak; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra,
Pique, Evans; Ronaldo, Eagles, Scholes, Carrick, Gibson, Anderson,
Nani; Giggs, Rooney, Tevez, Saha
