Carlos Confirms Saha Blow
Louis Saha will miss Saturday´s home game against Charlton - and is likely to be out for the next three weeks.
That was the bad news delivered by Carlos Queiroz, deputising for Sir Alex Ferguson in the regular Friday press briefing.
However, there was some good news regarding United´s quartet of strikers - Ruud van Nistelrooy trained, as you can see on ManUtdpics.com.
" There are one or two decisions to make," Carlos told us. " Not because they are serious problems, simply because we need to think about Tuesday´s game against Lyon.
" Louis Saha´s injury is more serious than we expected. It´s not good news. We know that, for the next three or four weeks, we cannot think about Louis Saha."
Saha picked up the knee injury whilst on international duty with France, but Queiroz confirmed the injury is unrelated to a knee problem Saha was suffering from earlier this year.
Reds striker Wayne Rooney has been on the receiving end of criticism this week after England boss Sven Goran Eriksson withdrew the player before half time in the midweek friendly against Spain.
Rooney had been booked for a foul on Joaquin and had pushed goalkeeper Iker Casillas. But Carlos says Rooney should not be portrayed as the “bad guy” in what was a hot-tempered match.
" Players can learn from every game," said the Reds assistant boss. " The lessons from Wednesday night are not just for Rooney. The whole team can learn.
" Watching the game very carefully, I know the tackles were not only from Rooney. Other players produced uglier tackles, worse than Rooney. What I cannot accept is that – and this is what it seems like to me – a footballer from Manchester United can be seen as the bad guy and the others are the nice guys.
" It happened three weeks ago when we played Arsenal; Ruud van Nistelrooy became the bad guy. All the others seem to become the nice guys."
Carlos said he did not want to “put wood on the fire” when asked whether Sven Goran Eriksson had fuelled criticism of Rooney’s display in Spain by substituting the striker three minutes from time.
”It is important that we now create the right environment, the right concentration and the right attitude to beat Charlton. It would be a huge mistake for us if we are still playing Wednesday’s game when we take on Charlton.”
Fergie´s No.2 thinks the team is on the cusp of a run of form, and just require " a couple of wins" to get into a ryhthm that will see United challenge for the Premiership title.
" Everybody knows that we dropped points we didn’t expect to drop in the first 13 games," he said. " But we are ready. The team is improving.
" The players are fantastic at the moment. We just need a couple of wins to restore our trust and our confidence.
" I have no doubts that in this next stage – the next 12 or 13 matches – we can perform like we did against Newcastle. If we do, we will be in the final race; ready in the last thirteen matches of the season to fight and compete for the number one spot."
