Despite yesterday's 2-1 Charity Shield defeat to Liverpool, Roy Keane believes Manchester United are beginning to click into top gear with just a week to go before opening their Premiership account against newly-promoted Fulham. The Republic of Ireland midfielder, who is in Dublin preparing for Wednesday's international friendly with Croatia at Lansdowne Road, will miss the opener, but believes his teammates are more than capable of beginning the season in winning style, insisting the team are reaching peak fitness at just the right time.
Keane explained: "No doubt Liverpool will be happy with the win, and let's not take anything away from them, but we won't be losing any sleep over it. We were happy with the second half of the game but the game is 90 minutes long. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb. We have lost the last three Charity Shields but gone on to do fairly well. The Charity Shield came a week early regarding fitness. We did a long trip to the Far East and that took a little bit out of us. But we've had a week or two back in Manchester and fitness wise we were running strongly towards the end. We picked up no injuries and lads are looking fairly sharp. Certainly they were late on."
Keane will continue his pre-season preparations with Wednesday's friendly to the fore, and the Old Trafford skipper is grateful to be included especially as he misses the Fulham match through suspension. The majority of the United players will also be on international duty, and Keane continued: "I think the internationals this week will top up our fitness nicely."
Looking ahead to the new season, the Corkman believes Liverpool to be one of the main threats to their Premiership crown. He acknowledged: "Liverpool finished the end of last season fantastically well. Of course they will be one of our challengers but we knew that."
Filed by Shane Murray
