‘One of the most inexperienced squads in Manchester United history headed out to Cyprus for the next leg of a draining two-week stint which is threatening the club's Premiership title bid.’
‘Among the major absentees from the squad which flew back out to south-eastern Europe to face Maccabi Haifa on Wednesday - just three days after an early-morning return from Greece - were David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Juan Sebastian Veron, Fabien Barthez and Laurent Blanc.
Throw in long-term injury victims Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane - believed to be on the verge of accepting his five-match FA ban - Nicky Butt and Wes Brown and the Old Trafford outfit had a stronger squad left in Manchester than the one which will attempt to maintain a 100% Champions League record against Israel's Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday.
'The only experience some of the lads on this trip have is with the reserve team,' admitted Ferguson, who was greeted on his arrival in Larnaca with a bunch of red roses, donated by the local, well-established Manchester United supporters' club. It is a learning curve for them but we are still looking to win the game.'
'The trip to Olympiakos was hard work,' said Ferguson, 'people think I am making excuses but it's a valid reason for the way we played yesterday. There was a lot of travelling involved and the first half in particular was shoddy.'
United squad:
Goalkeepers
: Roy Carroll, Ricardo Lopez, Ben WilliamsDefenders: Lee Roche, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, David May, John O'Shea, Rio Ferdinand, Mikael Silvestre, Mark Lynch
Midfielders: Kieran Richardson, Danny Pugh, Paul Scholes, Quinton Fortune, Mads Timm
Forwards: Diego Forlan, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Daniel Nardiello.