Managers Press Conference – Sunderland

The manager addressed the media this morning ahead of United’s important trip to the ‘Stadium of Light’ on Saturday evening. With the reds poor early league form; this has been marked as a ‘must win’ game for United, and they will be boosted by Wednesday nights resilient performance and important point collected in Ukraine. Moyes was unable to provide any injury update regarding Wayne Rooney who missed out on Wednesday night, but like recent weeks, he again emphasised the quality of the whole squad.

The manager went on to speak about how tough Saturday’s game will be, and stated that the reds will do everything they can to get their league form back on track, with the players individually setting themselves some very high standards. Moyes seemed relaxed about the reds current league position, and went on  to highlight there is still a long way to go in this year’s title race. The key quotes from this mornings press conference can be seen below.

The key quotes from the manager:
On Wayne Rooney’s injury:

“I’ve not seen him yet this morning so I couldn’t give you an update.”

The United’s return to Premier League action:

“The Champions League is separate from the Premier League. We’re concentrated on the league now. We’ve got really good players, they know themselves the standards they’ve set over the years and we’ll work together.”

On the title race:

“There is a long way to go in the Premier League. It’s a long season. You’ll see great changes as the season goes on. We’ll hang in there and get ourselves as close to the top as soon as we can.”

On Sunderland:

“I think I went there last season with Everton when Di Canio had just got the job and I lost in that game. It was probably one of the only games I lost at Everton in the last 11 or 12 games, we didn’t lose that many.

“We go up there now with a new manager again, Kevin Ball, but Kevin has been there for a while. He’s very experienced, he knows the club, he knows the players. He’ll have watched all the games and he’ll know what he has to do in this short term period.

“Whether he  (Kevin Ball) gets the job or not, nobody knows. Sunderland look as if they played quite well in the last couple of games. It’s an important game we want to win. We’ll pick a team which can go there and win.” 

On yet another question about his ‘new’ job:

“Anybody who comes into a new job, you learn as you get on and as you go along. I’m doing that as well. I already knew I was coming to a place with really good players but we’ll also have difficult times as well.”

Overall, it was interesting to see that Moyes is still remaining calm over United’s league form, and he seemed confident in his squads ability to turn it around. The manager answered the question regarding Wayne Rooney’s injury status however fairly sharply, giving a fairly brief, blunt answer. With a few reports on Wednesday suggesting the pair have had another fall out; this may possibly fuel speculation, but the likelihood is everything is fine and Rooney will most likely feature on Saturday. 

The manager was also again asked a question touching upon his new role and experience as Manchester United manager, something I’m sure which he is getting fed up of speaking about just as we are hearing it. Hopefully Moyes’ faith in the squad will be rewarded this weekend and United can collect three vital points to get the league campaign back on track before the international break.