Porto on Tuesday night with a 2-1 deficit from the first leg
and the knowledge that their best chance of progress lies in
scoring more goals than a leaky defence will concede.
‘Ferguson is convinced his side will score goals at Old
Trafford. The big question is the one that has come to
define United's season since Rio Ferdinand's suspension. How
many will their constantly reshuffled back four let in?
‘A question only slightly smaller, in view of the impact of
Ferdinand's absence, is why Ferguson did not use the
transfer window to bring in cover for central defence. The
fact that no business resulted may amount to the biggest
misjudgment in a growing list of false moves by a suddenly
beleaguered Ferguson, something the manager is almost
prepared to admit. 'We did have the opportunity to bring a
defender in, but hindsight is a fine thing,' he said. 'At
that point we were hoping for an early appeal on Ferdinand.
We did not expect it to take over two months.'
‘It seems the real mistake United made was complacency over
the Ferdinand affair from day one. Even if an appeal had
been expedited within days of the suspension handed down in
Bolton at the end of last year, few outside Old Trafford
would have been expecting to see Ferdinand playing again
before Easter. It was obvious the player was going to miss a
key period of the season and Ferguson has to be guilty of
over - optimism. Either he thought Ferdinand would be back
sooner, or he thought his defence would cope better without
him.
‘He knows better now.’