The Editor of MUFCINFO.COM Article by Mark Graham, Editor, Record Keeper & Official Reporter @ MUFCINFO.COM.

preview: MANCHESTER UNITED v Portsmouth

Premiership, Matchday 26

Old Trafford, Manchester, 15.00pm GMT, Saturday 6th February 2010.
Articles wrote by the Editor of mufcinfo.com - Mark Graham

Team News

Nemanja Vidic is expected to play after training this week.

 

Rio Ferdinand is suspended

 

 

InjuredINJURED

Owen Hargreaves (knees)

John O'Shea (ankle)

Doubtful

Nemanja Vidic (nerve in leg)

Referee's notebook & CardsSUSPENDED

Rio Ferdinand

InjuredINJURED

Herman Hreidarsson (achilles)

 

Doubtful

Michael Brown (back)

Papa Bouba Diop (hamstring)

Tommy Smith (hamstring)

Referee's notebook & CardsSUSPENDED

 none

Yellow CardRed Card

 REFEREE TODAY:

Squads

Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Neville, Brown, Rafael, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Fabio, Park, Nani, Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Gibson, Anderson, Giggs, Rooney, Owen, Berbatov, Diouf.

Portsmouth (from): James, Finnan, Ben-Haim, Belhadj, Boateng, O'Hara, Wilson, Yebda, Basinas, Owusu-Abeyie, Piquionne, Webber, Dindane, Rocha, Mullins, Vanden Borre, Hughes, Ashdown.

Pre Match Press Conference Highlights

On Owen Hargreaves

"Owen's recovery is slow," admitted Ferguson.

"It is a year and a half now and I can't put a time on it. "But he will be back. He could come back and make an impact on the league for us. Hopefully he does. "There are more games in the league than there are in the European Cup and I don't need to register him for the league."


"It would be nice to think we could get to the European Cup final and have Owen Hargreaves available," said Ferguson.

"But we are not there. We have AC Milan in 10 days' time and we need to win that game.

"If I was choosing Owen I would have had to leave another important player out because he will not be available for the AC Milan game. That important player might be the one I need. "I had to choose and it was a hard decision. But it is the correct decision."'

 

On Rooney's performances

"Unbelievable performances," "Hopefully we are now seeing him mature into the centre-forward we always thought he would be.

"Young players develop in stages. I said last season that he was producing bursts here and there, scoring for four or five games and then having dry spells.

"But that's what you expect from maturity. I think we are now seeing a more mature player."

 

On Nani's recent form

"In the case of Nani, like Rooney, I think we are seeing a player who is maturing," said Ferguson.

"He's a young lad who has come in from a different country and he has taken more time than some of the others to settle. But that sometimes happens.

"Sometimes you bring a player in from another country and they settle straight away, but with Nani you can see his progression over the last few games because he has been outstanding."

He added: "It's got nothing to do with Cristiano, it's an individual thing. He is maturing and he has got the appreciation from his team-mates, which is helping him.

"As a kid he always had great talent but he has taken time to settle into the country."

Head to Head
 

HEAD TO HEAD RECORDS v Portsmouth England
A record of Competitive games played between Manchester United & Portsmouth

ALL COMPETITIVE MATCHES
P W D L F A Diff
TOTAL 74 35 19 20 116 81 +35
League Division One   League Division Two   FA Premiership
H/A P W D L F A Diff H/A P W D L F A Diff H/A P W D L F A Diff
H 20 11 3 6 34 20 +14 H 2 2 0 0 4 1 +3 H 6 6 0 0 15 1 +14
A 20 5 7 8 22 29 -7 A 2 0 2 0 1 1 0 A 7 3 1 3 10 8 +2
TOTAL 40 16 11 14 56 49 +7 TOTAL 4 2 2 0 5 2 +3 TOTAL 13 9 1 3 25 9 +16

ALL LEAGUE MATCHES
P W D L F A Diff
H 28 19 3 6 53 22 +31
A 29 8 10 11 33 38 -5
TOTAL 57 27 13 17 86 60 +26
League Cup FA Cup
H/A P W D L F A Diff H/A P W D L F A Diff
H 4 2 2 0 6 3 +3 H 7 3 2 2 14 9 +5
A 2 2 0 1 4 2 +2 A 3 1 1 1 6 7 -1
N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 6 4 2 1 10 5 +5 TOTAL 10 4 3 3 20 16 +4

ALL CUP MATCHES
P W D L F A Diff
H 11 5 4 2 20 12 +8
A 5 3 1 1 10 9 +1
N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 16 8 5 3 30 21 +9

CHARITY SHIELD
H/A P W D L F A Diff
H 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
*N 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 1 0 1 0 0 0 0

* Includes United beat Portsmouth 3-1 on penalties 2008/2009 Community Shield

Milestones

SAF's 683rd Premiership fixture in charge.

75th game between the two sides.

Score Prediction

3-0.

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