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Manchester United strongest since Alex Ferguson era, says CSKA Moscow manager

Jose Mourinho gestures on the touchline during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Everton at Old Trafford
Image: Mourinho's current team is United's best since Alex Ferguson left according to CSKA Moscow manager Viktor Goncharenko

CSKA Moscow manager Viktor Goncharenko has said he thinks this Manchester United team is the best since Sir Alex Fergurson retired.

Both teams started their Champions league campaigns with wins; United comfortably beat Basel 3-0 while CSKA overcame Benfica 2-1 and Goncharenko is predicting a tough encounter with United.

"After Alex Ferguson's legacy, this current version of Manchester United is without any doubt the strongest team," Goncharenko said.

"It's quite hard to argue because Alex Ferguson has created so many versions of strong Manchester United [teams]. We can compare it with 1999, 2003 versions, so there was lots of great squads and great teams."

United have travelled to the Russian capital without a number of first team players. Antonio Valencia, Michael Carrick, Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini have all not made the trip but the CSKA boss still expects their replacements to be more then capable.

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"The characteristic of a great club is if they lose some kind of top players and they can substitute their absence of these top players for other strong players," said the CSKA boss, who hopes to have Mario Fernandes available after concussion.

"Matic-Fellaini is one of type of the game, Matic- Herrera are a little bit different characteristics. But it doesn't mean that the level of the match, from their performance, will be decreased.

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"Something changes in the game with respect to the set-pieces, but we won't find here any weakness for our opponent."

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