Sir Alex Ferguson believes Manchester United’s high-scoring matches this season are making them more popular across the globe.
PA PhotosSir Alex Ferguson’s Man United team are sitting atop the Premier League
• Blog: United lay down challenge
United’s games in all competitions have thus far produced 105 goals this term, 78 of which have come in their 20 league appearances.
Ferguson, who is preparing his team to take on Wigan on New Year’s Day, insists this open, attacking style is attracting fans from around the world like never before.
“We’re getting goals, no doubt about that. The fans are enjoying it. I think in terms of a worldwide audience they will be turning their TVs on whether they’re in America, Australia, to see another 4-3.
“We’ve been forced to up the ante all the time because we’re losing goals. We’re stretching ourselves all the time. In fairness to the players, they want to win. The history of the club is like that. I don’t think it’s anything to do with last year in particular.
“Giving the goals away is forcing them to get their fingers out. In fairness, we’ve been brilliant at it. The attacking play the other night was fantastic. The chances we created were fantastic, involving seven or eight players all the time.”
Ferguson, though, dismissed that he has any plans to change the team’s approach in order to shore up their defence.
“We’re a team that goes forward. We always go forward so there are holes left and we are getting punished for that more than ever.
“We’ve lost 28 goals already. There was one season when Peter Schmeichel was in goal we came to the last game of the season and we’d conceded a lot fewer than that. He lost a goal in the last game and he was going crazy. We’ve lost 28 now before we’ve even reached New Year.
“But if we stop giving goals away then we’ve got a great chance this season. We’ve got plenty of goals up front.”
