SIZE DOES MATTER

"We are two or three players short of having the kind of strong squad the likes of Juventus and AC Milan have in the Champions League and both Arsenal and Liverpool have in the Premiership,"

"With a nucleus of about 17 outfield players, it is certainly one of the weakest in terms of numbers and it looks a bit thin when you get a few injuries like we have at the moment."

However it doesn't mean they're better than us.

"In the past five years we have played all the top teams in the quarter-final and semi-final stages and on every occasion we have never been far away from winning the matches," said Ferguson.

"But the one that was the real disappointment - and I felt we had to change after it - was the defeat to Real Madrid. We played with the Manchester United heart but not the mentality, attacking all the time and then getting caught on the counter-attack. And that's when we had to change. Although we only lost 3-2, it was a sore experience. From then on I think the team has improved tremendously."

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