No disaster for Ferguson

Ferguson: Glass is half full

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Sir Alex Ferguson is confident the effects of the season are not catching up with his Manchester United players.

United have lacked their usual gusto in recent games, particularly in last week's 0-0 draw in Barcelona and Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Premier League title rivals Chelsea.

On Tuesday, United face Barcelona in the return leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final and Ferguson remains upbeat about his team's chances of ending the campaign with silverware.

"I'm not concerned the season is beginning to affect the team," said Ferguson.

Should be champions

"I think we should be sitting here as champions of the league. I think decisions have gone against us, bad decisions have gone against us.

"But here we are sitting here at this very moment, it doesn't matter about the decisions in the past. When we started out in the league in August, it was to win the league. We signed up to play 38 league matches, and we are going to play 38 league matches.

"And if it means we have to win the last two games to win the league, then so be it.

"Where we are now is, with two games left - it doesn't matter if we've had 50 penalty kicks turned down, or 50 given to us, or terrible performances, or great performances - we are sitting here now with two games left.

"A semi-final tomorrow, a home game on Saturday and a game against Wigan away. Disaster!"

Incentive

Ferguson left Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez on the bench for Saturday's loss at Chelsea, but is convinced it was the best decision in order to boost United's prospects of reaching the Champions League final.

He added: "Saturday can only help us, no question about that. Playing Wednesday night after a lunchtime kick-off there is no way I could have played the same teams; so I had to decide where I could get the best freshness and give my team the best chance of a European final because that is the best incentive for any player.

"Time and time again I said this club should have had more success in Europe and I wanted to give them the very best chance and it was a very easy team to pick on Saturday.

"We are disappointed in the manner in which we lost. That is normal, but with the incentive of a big game you put that behind you quickly and the intensity of the training session reflected that."