Boss thankful for stern test

Sir Alex Ferguson rued the uncharacteristic defensive frailty United showed against Inter Milan, but was delighted with the overall test posed by the Serie A champions.

Quickfire first half goals from David Suazo (2) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Inter a 3-2 win at Old Trafford, where they were helped by some generous defending from the hosts.

After the relative ease of United’s four game Asian Tour, however, Sir Alex was thankful for a sterner challenge from Roberto Mancini’s side.

“It was a meaningful game tonight,” he told MUTV. “We understand that when we go to the Far East the quality isn’t going to be as high as it was tonight, that’s obvious. So tonight’s game was needed, we needed that tempo to the match.

“The sharpness and the professionalism of the Inter Milan team was very good, their tackling and defending was aggressive. We needed that type of game too.

“All in all the four games in the Far East were a step in terms of playing games, tonight was a step forward in terms of the pace needed to win top matches.”

Although critical of his side’s first-half defensive lapses, the Boss was pleased to see an improvement after the interval, especially with Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Chelsea looming large.

“The first half they were so open,” he said. “We were all over the place when we lost the ball. If you defend like that you’re going to lose but, in fairness to them, they stepped up and did much better in the second half.

“There was some really good one-touch play at times and it was a delight. Even with the experience of Inter Milan, there was nothing they could do about it at times. But I’m happy overall with the workout of the night.

taken from manutd.com