Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Champions League: Wayne Rooney looks for Man Utd to bounce back

United travel to Transylvania to face Romanian champions CFR Cluj without a number of key midfielders. Michael Carrick will miss out because of a virus, while Ryan Giggs is also feeling unwell and did not board the flight to Romania. Paul Scholes will not play either having completed the 90 minutes of United’s defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening.
In the face of such problems as well as missing the injured Nemanja Vidic, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, Sir Alex Ferguson may field Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie from the start for the first time against a Cluj team who beat Braga 2-0 away in their opening fixture in Group H.
"Probably the strongest part of the club will be in the striker department," the United manager said, adding that he was concerned by the club's slow start to the season and in matches, especially after losing to Tottenham Hotspur in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday, their second league defeat of the season.
"If you go back, our norm was to start the season and build up to the second half, and then we changed when Chelsea won the title two years in a row," said Ferguson. "We changed our approach to pre-season training. It [the slow start to the season] is not planned, but I think it will be the last of it."
"If you are not at your best you get punished, which happened to us last season"
Wayne Rooney
After beating Galatasaray 1-0 at home in the first matchday, Rooney is looking for United to continue their good start to avoid a repeat of their failure to emerge from the group stage last season.
"If you are not at your best you get punished, which is what happened to us last season,” Rooney said. "We have to make sure that won't happen again this year so this is a big game for us.
"Hopefully, we will get a win which will put us in a good position to go through so early on in the group."http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/uefa-champions-league-group-stage-preview-021012.html

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