Sir Alex Ferguson admits his side were lucky to come away with a 3-1 victory and feels he may have got his tactics wrong at White Hart Lane.
Despite his frank admission, the Manchester United manager still feels his side will hold their nerve as they look to overtake Manchester Cityand defend their Premier League title.
United were lucky to be leading 1-0 at half-time after Tottenham Hotspur wasted several good opportunities and had David de Gea to thank for making two superb saves.
Ferguson is well aware that United need to show a big improvement if they are to keep the pressure on City and was grateful that the luck went his way in north London.
Ferguson said: “We carried a bit of luck today. It’s an entirely unbelievable result. I would say that’s our hardest away game of the season.
“In fairness, the first half, we were never at the races. Maybe we got our tactics wrong. What we tried to do was come back off them and sit back a little bit and draw them onto us and then play on the counter-attack. But it didn’t work.
“Second half, we pushed up more on them, challenged their back four better, and it did make a difference.”
Ferguson had special praise for De Gea, who defied his critics to show again why Ferguson paid so much money to bring him to Old Trafford last summer with a superb save to deny Jake Livermore.
Ferguson added: “Fantastic save, absolutely brilliant, and that’s the kind of save that the boy’s capable of making. He did it last week at Norwich, made two or three great saves then. He’s done it again.”
With 11 games left, Ferguson is convinced his side have enough experience to reduce the two-point gap on Manchester City and keep their nerve at a critical stage of the season.
“Teams will drop points, but the important thing is not to drop as many as your opponents. We’ve got experience, we won’t get nervous, we’re enjoying it, and the battling performance we gave today against a very good team tells you that we’re up for it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment