MANCHESTER UNITED FOOTBALL FANS

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that his club would relish the prospect of playing against Manchester City in the final of the Europa league. Manchester United will be facing Ajax in the last 32 of the Europa league. It is very much expected that Manchester United will make it into the last 16 due to their healthy lead from the first leg. Even though Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that the second leg against Ajax will be tough, he hopes Manchester United to get through into the next round. The second leg will be at home for Manchester United.

Ajax and Atletico Madrid are the two high-profile teams left in the competition aside from the likes of Valencia and the Manchester clubs. Hence, Sir Alex Ferguson has suggested that there is every chance that Manchester United can reach the final of the Europa league this season. He also said that Manchester City also have a great chance of reaching the finals. If they do so, it would be a great match to watch because of the history between the two clubs. Manchester United and Manchester City have already met each other three times this season.

“Ourselves and City didn’t expect to be where we are today. Both of us will be trying to win it and it would be a great final, that. That would be a difficult task for us. You have to recognise there are a lot of teams at a very good standard,” Sir Alex Ferguson said ahead of the Ajax match. Manchester United will be hoping to have Tom Cleverley back into the first-team squad. The England midfielder has recovered sufficiently from the injury suffered during the season and was on the bench for the Premier league match against Liverpool recently.

Manchester United are set to receive a major boost in terms of the injury front after it was revealed that midfielder Tom Cleverley is ready to return to first-team action. Manchester United have missed to the presence of Tom Cleverley in midfield, despite the fact that the 22-year-old youngster has been a first-team player with Manchester United only since the summer.

Tom Cleverley has spent very seasons in the Premier league on loan at clubs like Wigan athletic, and he is being given his first chance at Manchester United. He impressed Sir Alex Ferguson so much so that Manchester United did not feel the after effects of having lost Paul Scholes – one of the most impressive players over the last 15 years – through retirement.

Tom Cleverley has been out with an ankle injury since the middle of the campaign. He is expected to resume duties in midfield shortly. His injury became extremely serious for the first team, as they failed to keep possession of the ball and create any chances. This led Sir Alex Ferguson into persuading Scholes to return from his retirement. Ever since his return, Scholes has been quite brilliant, but the 36-year-old midfielder will get a breather after the return of Tom Cleverley.

Cleverley’s return should help United in their match against Ajax, where the best Europa League odds suggest that the Reds will prevail with relative ease.

It has been recently revealed that Tom Cleverley could be part of the substitutes for the reserves match against Liverpool. Manchester United recently took on Liverpool in the fifth round of the FA Cup and lost after having seen off Manchester City in the earlier round. The youngster has not featured for Manchester United since the 1-0 win they achieved against Everton earlier in the campaign. The reserve match between Manchester United and Liverpool has now been switched to Carrington due to the heavy snow at the originally scheduled location.

Manchester United ran out 5-0 winners in the crucial match between themselves and Fulham at Craven cottage. It was viewed as the fixture that would certainly bring an upset to the title hopes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United given that they have performed pretty poorly in their last few visits to the Craven cottage.

However, Manchester United put behind their recent form against the cottagers to perform spectacularly well, which also helped them to keep in touch with Manchester City in the title race. Manchester City ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against Stoke City.

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Ok, so maybe centre forward is being a little unrealistic but with two assured displays in the middle of the park for England makes you wonder whether centre back is his best position.

Of course he has all the attribute of a good defender: strong physique, clam under pressure, good in the air and electric acceleration. But with his powerful runs through opposition defenders it may feel like a waste to curb his attacking instincts.

Both for club and country he has been creating chances when going forward. At united these have come from wide areas whilst playing at right-back but have often left their back line exposed to the counter. This problem would only increase if he was playing in the centre, with a large hole created if he lost the ball. His style is somewhat similar to Spanish defenders where you often see defenders like Pepe and Pique rampage through a team. The quality in the Spanish league however is much less consistant than in England where almost every team has players that can hurt you.

So would playing further forward suite his style of play? Former manager Sam Allardayce has argued that he has a greater potential in midfield and urges his mangers to play him further forward, where he often played for the Blackburn team.

His last appearances for England have shown he can play exceedingly well there, especially against Sweden where he had a much greater license to roam. The chances he creates are formed from a burst through the defence that has been the trademark of Steven Gerrard this decade. Few players seem to have this talent, and with Gerrards days numbered around the England squad it would be good to see new blood replacing his exciting style of play.

I for one would be disappointed to see his attacking flair wasted and it will be interesting to see where Sir Alex Ferguson will play him in the next few games of the season.