Alex Ferguson says that Manchester United need a “miracle” to retain the championship following today’s sixth Premiership defeat of the season against West Ham.
“It puts us in a precarious situation now and I think it's almost impossible now. I think it will take a miracle. I think the first thing we have to do is pick up our form. There were some failures today and we have to something about that. The first half was disappointing because we never got the tempo going and we allowed them to dictate the passing in the match. We never squeezed the game like we did on Wednesday so the focus we had on Wednesday was lost today,” said Ferguson.
The Manchester United manager defended his decision to start with David Beckham on the bench and leave out Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy, claiming that they were rested. “Ruud was very tired after Wednesday, very, very tired, which is not surprising and he has come into the English game and played a lot of football. Really he was off for a year before he came so he needed the break,” he told Manchester United radio.
Bitter Ferguson claimed that referee Paul Durkin should have awarded United at least one penalty. “I thought it was a penalty, but I would need to see it again. You always need to clarify these things, but in the first half, I thought it was a clear penalty kick. But Paul Durkin has never given us a penalty kick no matter what the circumstances are. I remember the cup tie last year, he turned two diabolical handballs down against us. He's continued to do that and I'm disappointed in him,” he complained.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
