Vidic Set for Return

[andrewcmufc]

Nemanja Vidic is expected to return to Manchester United's injury-ravaged defence for Saturday's Premier League meeting with Aston Villa.

Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson was forced to employ a back four of Patrice Evra, Park Ji-sung, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher against Wolfsburg in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night.

Ferguson was missing 14 senior men for the clash in Germany, eight of them defenders, with his midfield trio forced to drop back to play alongside captain for the night Evra.

The hat-trick heroics of Michael Owen fired United to a 3-1 success and top spot in Group B as the makeshift backline performed well.

Serbia international Vidic has now recovered from the illness which kept him out of the victories over Wolfsburg and West Ham and will slot back in against Villa.

"I expect Vidic to be fit and if he is available we would have him and Michael Carrick, plus Darren Fletcher and Patrice Evra," Ferguson said.

"I would be happy enough with that."
System

Ferguson also expects to have Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov available to face Martin O'Neill's men, who have once again moved to the fringes of a top-four place.

That might mean a quick relegation back to the substitutes' bench for Owen, who marked a rare start by converting his first Champions League treble since 2003.

Ferguson is delighted with the contribution of his free transfer summer signing and admitted United's regular formation goes some way to explaining his lack of starts.

He added: "I made the point some weeks ago that his training performances have improved steadily. I have had no worries about him.

"Obviously in some games recently we have only played with one striker and Wayne Rooney has been it. Here we used a different system."

Source: Sky Sports

[Noucamp99]

Superb. Although the hastily put-together defensive unit did OK against the Germans, Villa and other PL teams will be a bit more wise to it and would look to attack the flanks more, but also, get their forwards 1-on-1 with the makeshift centre backs and move them around a lot. A bit of experience will go a long way.

What about Wesley? Wasn't he ill, too?

[rdc777]

Brown was taken off towards the end of the Wet Spam game, so if he's ill it must have came on rather suddenly. Don't know what's actually wrong with him. Lets take a wild guess at it's his leg. Left leg. Above the knee. Thigh. Strained. Not badly though. Hah, really I haven't a scooby.

[Vazza]

Good to know he's back.....
need a good CB to stop both Carew and abla... thank god he's back....

[Noucamp99]

I can answer my own question!

United report 10 players injured as of this morning. Remember, some of those missing last night were rested.

They are:

W Rooney Hamstring Injury 12th Dec 09
W Brown Hamstring Injury 12th Dec 09
N Vidic Virus 12th Dec 09
G Neville Groin Strain no return date
Fabio Groin Strain 12th Dec 09
J O'Shea Thigh Muscle Strain 9th Jan 10
J Evans Calf Muscle Strain 9th Jan 10
D Berbatov Knee Injury 12th Dec 09
R Ferdinand Calf Muscle Strain 19th Dec 09
O Hargreaves Jumpers Knee 19th Dec 09

So Wesley might be in consideration, if Vidic is, according to the dates.

Source: physioroom.com

[rdc777]

Well my guess of a leg injury for Brown was correct, although it's kind of an odd on guess when a footballer is injured that it's going to be a leg. Going to be short of defenders until the Johnny's are back though which is a bit worrying. Hopefully we can have a back four of Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, and Evra for the busy 19th Dec to the 9th of Jan period.

[Phil-M.U.F.C.]

Hopefully Brown comes back this weekend.