Galatasaray away is never an easy trip to make, but Sir Alex Ferguson has backed his young side to give a good account of themselves when they visit the Turk Telekom Arena.
With Manchester United already booking their place in the next round of the Champions League, Sir Alex opted to take a young side to Turkey, whilst the team’s big name stars remained at home.
This means a likely return for Phil Jones whilst youngsters like Nick Powell may well find themselves thrown into the thick of it against a hostile Turkish crowd.
But Sir Alex has faith in his side and feels they will do themselves justice:
“It’s a big day for Phil Jones.
“He’s been out all season but has done enough training to make sure his fitness is okay.
“They’ve all been different types of injuries and because he is young, he’s still to develop physically.
“He’s only 20 years of age so there’s plenty of time for him.
“Most of them will have experience of big games and big crowds.
“Obviously for Nick Powell it’s completely different – he’s played in front of 76,000 as a substitute but this will be his first European away game.
“It will be a big day for him but he has the temperament, which is important.”
anyone else fed up with all this talk of youth?? we are becoming as boring as arsenal…”the kids” “the future” etc and then never picking them for any noteworthy games..if tonights result mattered it would be a midfield of giggs scholes carrick fletcher etc…andersons playing well and cannot get a game……we havent had a batch of academy youngsters who have been regulars since the mid nineties..the odd player but our best players no..and yet fergie talks as if we are doing what barca do…2 things no we are not…and barca at least trust their youth in big games….we play 39 year olds….
Nice name!
I think we can’t just throw our young players into big games esp as the first team is still finding it’s feet. It makes no sense trying to blood in a 19 year old CB if he’s going to be playing beside a 23 year old cb who is trying to find his feet himself.
Barcelona are afforded the luxury of bringing in young players who can be guided by the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Puyol etc Case in point Messi’s debut Ronaldinho walked him through it set him up twice after his first was disallowed.
Last season against Stoke we did the same with Pogba when he came on and had Carrick and Scholes beside him, but as you well know this sort of thing isn’t easy!
I guess, it comes down to 16794 simple choice!