Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson admitted he dropped David Beckham from his side's last Champions League group match last night to give him a break from the limelight. Beckham was left on the bench as United beat Sturm Graz 3-0 to qualify as runners up. Alongside strikers Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke on the bench, Beckham has been out of form in a number of recent performances.
"David has had a lot of football and a break from the first team will do him the world of good. He has had to put up with a lot of nonsense in the media so it will do him good," Ferguson said in an interview with Reuters. "He was fine about being left out."
Despite the England captain’s absence, United cruised to victory over a disappointing Sturm Graz.
Nicky Butt scored after just five minutes and once Teddy Sheringham added a second in the 20th the match was over as a competition, before Roy Keane struck just before the end. The victory saw United return to winning ways after drawing their last three Champions League games. They had previously lost two group games in the earlier stage of the competition.
Although he criticised his team before the match, Ferguson was happy with his team’s performance.
“I thought they did well. We kept the momentum of our passing going all the game,” Ferguson told Onsport. “We had good movement, I was pleased. We scored a couple of good goals. It was a good result for us.”
"We got the result we expected to get and the performance we should be getting more regularly," he added. (Reuters, PA)
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
