Strikers Digging Us Out of Holes Admits Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson After Win Over Stoke

Saturday, 20th October, 2012

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson watched his side beat Stoke City 4-2 in the Premier League today and was quick to voice his opinion that his forwards are digging his team out of troublesome situations.

Stoke took the lead at Old Trafford after an unlikely own goal from Wayne Rooney, who headed the ball into his own net after 11 minutes.

relatedNewsStoryRooney was determined to make up for his mishap and equalised 16 minutes later, before Robin van Persie ensured the Red Devils would go in 2-1 ahead at half time.

The score was soon 3-1 after the restart when Danny Welbeck added another for Manchester United and, despite Stoke hitting back when Michael Kightly scored, Rooney popped up again to make absolutely sure of the points for the home side in the 65th minute.

Ferguson was happy to have put the Potters to the sword, but quickly insisted he is growing concerned at the amount of times his club’s strikers have to bail the team out of trouble.

"We keep starting badly in games, in the first 20 minutes", Ferguson told MUTV.

"We conceded an early goal against Fulham, an early goal against Tottenham, an early goal today – we’re giving ourselves uphill fights.

"You don’t want it to happen [going behind] but the forwards are digging us out of a hole at times. Hopefully we’ll get it sorted. It was an own goal, the first goal, and you obviously can’t account for that. The second goal was a really slack goal for us to lose."

And the Manchester United boss acknowledged that, so far, in the battle of performances, his strikers are well ahead of his defenders.

"There’s no doubt our attacking play has been the strongest part of our game [this season]. But we’re letting in goals at home and that’s disappointing."

Next up for Manchester United is a return to European action, with a Champions League clash against Portuguese side Braga on the agenda.