The Red Devils never fail to surprise their fans and rivals and this is what makes them one of the best teams in the world. They were almost losing at St. Mary’s with a 2-1 deficit and then they turned over the tables with the help of Robin van Persie’s two goals which led Manchester United to victory and Persie to his first ever hat-trick for Manchester United. Sir Alex’s 1000th game indeed turned out to be special.
Sir Alex, in his post-match conference, not only praised the hat-trick hero but gave due credit to Javier Hernandez, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand.
“We never give up,” he told MUTV. “Of course, it’s in the history books. Well done to the lads for coming back. We do that all the time at our club and I expect 10 like that a season so that’s one out of the way! It’s unbelievable – it really is.
“But we didn’t start playing until Scholes came onto the pitch with his range of passing, his consistency of passing and his presence turned the game for us.
“I thought we had reasonable control in the first half but lost a goal to a back-post cross, something we worked on all week, but credit to Southampton as they are good at it and put us on the back foot. We got the equaliser through a fantastic goal from Robin and I thought it would give us the opportunity to get our act together in the second half.
“Credit to Southampton, they kept loading the ball forward and played some nice football in midfield. They were the better team when they went 2-1 up but, when Scholes came on, the game changed.
“Robin has got four goals in two starts, which is a great statistic, and he’ll get better. Chicharito also came on and made a difference. He started stretching them with fantastic runs off the ball and I was delighted with his performance.”
When asked about the two goals that his team conceded, he was sure that his defence will improve.
“I think when you play two centre-backs regularly, you get consistent results,” he added. “That’s always been the case.
“This season, we had four centre-backs out and Michael Carrick played back there with Antonio Valencia at right-back. With the best will in the world, it’s never going to be a perfect solution.
“Rio was back and did better in the second half. He took time to get into the game in the first half but ended up playing very well for us. Nemanja Vidic is getting there. I think if those two keep fit and we get all the centre-backs fit, it will give us a really good chance.
“In goal, it was a big decision but I thought David De Gea lost a bad goal last week. He has to learn quickly, you know. He’ll be back after the international break but Anders had his first game. I thought he was a little bit nervous at points but he’s a very good keeper also. I don’t think it’s a big issue but it’s something you have to deal with.”
Compiled by Rida Mehtab
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