Fergie wants his Manchester United strikers to make Liverpool suffer

Mar 17 2008

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Sir Alex Ferguson is adamant “someone is going to suffer” once his side find their stride in front of goal.

After watching the champions narrowly escape potential embarrassment at Pride Park, Ferguson is now becoming increasingly irritated at the “charitable” nature of his players.

It happened at Old Trafford last weekend and it resulted in United being dumped out of the FA Cup by Portsmouth, and then it happened again against the Rams.

For 75 minutes chance after chance went begging, until man of the season Cristiano Ronaldo – who else? – finally ended brave Derby’s resistance by scoring his 31st goal this term. So whilst Ferguson’s frustration is growing at the chances being wasted, he is at least able to console himself with the fact his side are creating the opportunities in the first place.

It means Bolton could be in for a hiding on Wednesday when they visit Old Trafford should United start putting their chances away.

“Last Saturday, missing chances knocked us out of the cup, and against Derby we made it hard for ourselves because we missed so many again,” said Ferguson on MUTV.

“We were really charitable – it was a lot of chances. Maybe it’s a little sticky spell, but we want to get over it.

“We’ve big, important games coming up, Bolton at home on Wednesday and then Liverpool on Sunday, and we want to start taking chances. We are making them, I suppose that’s the biggest bonus of all. If we keep making them, you know at some point someone’s going to suffer. We just have to keep going with that.”

In conjunction with faltering Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium with Middlesbrough, United are back on top of the Premier League - and with a game in hand - and edging closer to clinching back- to-back titles.

Ferguson is now urging his players not to slip up against Bolton in order to perfectly tee up the mouth- watering clash with Liverpool.

“We wanted to win this game and be top of the league,” insisted Ferguson.

“We’ve our game in hand and we want to get those three points, then we can look forward to a real battle against Liverpool.”

Ferguson has confirmed he will again make changes for the visit of Bolton as Carlos Tevez, Rio Ferdinand and Nani did not figure against the Rams.

Time will tell if there will be another goalkeeping change after Ben Foster finally made his United debut, with Edwin van der Sar injured and Tomasz Kuszczak suspended.

At least Foster, who joined the club from Stoke for £1million in July 2005, conceded to “finally feeling like a United player” in the wake of his first appearance.

After spending two seasons on loan with Watford and then enduring an eight-month injury lay-off from which he only returned a week ago, Foster was understandably relieved.

“I’ve been here nearly three years and it’s good to finally get on the pitch for the first team in a competitive game,” said Foster.

“It’s a big thing to come back from injury and be thrown straight into the first team, but I thoroughly enjoyed it – though it was a bit harder than I thought.”

Foster initially appeared nervous as his clearance kicking was wayward, before settling down with two crucial saves from Kenny Miller in the space of 60 seconds late in the first half.

Despite proving he is more than capable of handling himself in the Premier League, FFoster is expecting to be back on the sidelines sooner rather than later.

“I wouldn’t have thought the manager would have too much of a dilemma,” added Foster.

“Edwin’s probably going to be fit for the Bolton or Liverpool game, and I’ve no qualms about him going straight back in,” said Foster.

“He’s been fantastic this season, and if I were him I’d be pretty disappointed if someone came in for one game and took my spot.”