Ferguson dilemma over crocked pair

Sir Alex Ferguson admits injured midfielders Owen Hargreaves and Anderson may be left out of Manchester United's Premier League squad.

Every team has to name a pool of 25 players, including eight who have been at the club for three years before they turned 21. Those under 21 do not count.

The list has to be in at the end of the summer transfer window and renewed if needed in January.

No timescale has been given on Hargreaves, who had a recent setback after double knee surgery while Anderson is recovering from a cruciate ligament injury and not expected back until the end of September

United boss Ferguson said: "It does give me a problem, but I have just got to wait as long as I can.

"I have to make a decision at some point of course and it depends on when I think those players can come back.

"Most of it (the squad) is formulated in my mind, but one or two I have to make decisions on."

Ferguson's hand, however, has been strengthened in the United States with new recruit Javier Hernandez linking up with the squad for the first time.

The striker had been on holiday after the World Cup in South Africa, where he scored two goals for Mexico.

Ferguson is debating whether to give Hernandez a run-out against the MLS All-Stars on Wednesday at the Reliant Stadium.

"We need to assess what he been doing physically in the last week or so," said the United boss. "We would like him to play a part in the game because there is a big Mexican population in Houston.

"We want to try and integrate him into the team as quickly as possible but we need to have a chat with him first."

Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea look certain to be rested for the showpiece match as they have picked up what Ferguson described as "niggling injuries".

They both missed the surprise 2-1 defeat by Kansas City Wizards at the Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

Ferguson said: "It is an issue for us at the moment. What we do not want to do is accelerate the injuries.

"We may have to leave them out of this difficult game. Other than that it will be a good challenge for us. Hopefully we get the result we want.

"It is the penultimate game of the tour and the biggest one. We appreciate the record the MLS has against the English sides - they are undefeated in these games."

Source: Team Talk
Date Published: 28 July 2010

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Have your say on Ferguson dilemma over crocked pair in the United Online forum

Fair enough, that makes sense so!

- letrip

From what I understand the 31 (not 30) is correct as it is a squad of 25 plus 6 youngsters.

- Oli

No Hargreaves in the European squad. Van der Sar Kuszczak Amos* Neville Evra J. Evans Ferdinand W. Brown Smalling Vidic O'Shea Fabio* Rafael* Gill* Nani Anderson Giggs Park Carrick Scholes Fletcher Valencia Gibson C. Evans* Berbatov Rooney Hernandez Owen Obertan Macheda* *Indicates player is on List B.

- John

bebe?? excuse my ignorance btw

- letrip

The list above is copied and not my own so there could well be mistakes. As far as the CL list goes, I think you can name an unlimited number of U21's.

- John

The acid test would be whether either player makes the Champions' League squad where there is a hard limit of 25 players - there are 31 listed there. I would be surprised to see Hargreaves in there at the expense of, say, Gibson or Chicharito. My guess is the players who'll miss out will be Hargo, Anderson, Bebe, De Laet, Obertan, plus one from Neville or the twins. Neil I'm pretty sure Fletch is homegrown, he joined us at 16, so I think that's just a mistake in the list above. Ben Amos is also homegrown and under 21.

- fenwar

Excuse my ignorance on the rules for this, but why is Fletcher not classed as "homegrown"? I'd have thought Hargreaves' inclusion is somewhat optimistic, but I'd love to be proved wrong. I guess he's not keeping anyone else out.

- Neil

Both Hargreaves & Anderson included in squad. [b:25yqo8l7]Homegrown[/b:25yqo8l7] Gibson Giggs Brown Evans Rio Scholes Neville O'Shea Carrick Owen Rooney [b:25yqo8l7]Other[/b:25yqo8l7] Amos Fletcher Kuszczak Van der Sar Hargreaves Nani Anderson Park Evra Valencia Berbatov Chicharito Vidic [b:25yqo8l7]Under 21's[/b:25yqo8l7] Fabio Rafael De Laet Obertan Bebe Smalling Macheda

- John

Doesn't make any sense to me either...... Let's look at all the players again...was having a similar discussion on another forum, so basically pasting the same squad and status of homegrown or not.. Goal Keepers Van Der Sar Kuszczak Defenders Neville (home grown) Brown (home grown) O'Shea (home grown) Ferdinand (home grown) Vidic Evans (home grown) Evra De Laet Midfield Valencia Nani Park Carrick (home grown) Scholes (home grown) Fletcher (home grown) Gibson (home grown) Giggs (home grown) Anderson Hargreaves Forwards Rooney (home grown) Owen (home grown) Diouf Berbatov Hernandez That's our 25! Then the following don't need to be registered as they are under 21 (or were under 21 before January 1st of this year) and can play anyways.. Amos (3rd choice keeper) Fabio Rafael Smalling Cleverly Obertan Macheda Welbeck Petrucci Eikrem King Evans Gill .......... a possible explanation that I read though is that Amos would be registered as a 3rd choice keeper, AS [b:33qyqmur]supposedly[/b:33qyqmur] under Premier League rules, if you have registered only 2 keepers and 1 of them (or 2 of them) got injured, you wouldn't be allowed to bring in an emergency replacement... However if you registered 3 keepers, and at the same time 2 of them got injured, you would be entitled to bring in an emergency replacement....God knows now!

- Zain

Quick look at our squad on the skysports website and we appear to only have 24 players of the age of 22 or older, including Anderson and Hargreaves, so i'm not sure what the problem is? I wouldnt include Hargreaves anyway. I'd be shocked if he ever made a contribution for us again. Edit - My mistake, it appears that Ritchie De Laet counts as over 21, so we have 25 players. Still doesnt explain why we'd leave Anderson out though?

- twoc2002