Edwin Grateful To Coaching Staff

Edwin van der Sar heaped praise on United’s backroom staff after the Reds’ victory against a physical Bolton side at the Reebok Stadium.

Van der Sar made a point of bringing fitness coach Tony Strudwick in front of the MUTV cameras during his post-match interview, in which he credited the Reds' current form to the work behind the scenes at Carrington.

“Tony and his team work hard to prepare the players in the best way possible,” Edwin told MUTV. “A lot of the progress we are making on the pitch is down to him.

“With his help and the tactics of Rene [Meulensteen], Mick [Phelan] and the boss, it’s a delight to be here."

Strudwick responsed by saluting van der Sar for his professionalism on the training ground, as well as his performance on the pitch following the two crucial saves he made when the score was at 1-0.

“Edwin’s got a programme in place which he manages himself. He seems to be getting younger as he goes on,” said Tony. “He made some terrific saves today and he’s very professional and sets the standards for everybody."

The fitness coach gave an insight into the challenges of a busy run-in, with United now getting ready for a trip to Bayern Munich, swiftly followed by Chelsea at home.

“It can be difficult when you don’t have much time to prepare between games but the players have a process in place," said Strudwick.

"They recover well and they are very professional. There are no days off for them at this stage so it’s important to keep going.”

Turning to the match itself, van der Sar was pleased with the performance of his team-mates, particularly Nemanja Vidic, who had to contest aerial balls all evening. He also admitted United were delighted to draw first blood with a goal shortly before half time.

“These sorts of games are ideal for someone of Vida’s quality. He won a lot of aerial battles when they were putting the high balls in.”

“You know what you are going to get with Bolton. I’ve been here a few times now and it’s always like this.

“It was great to get the first goal so we had something to hang on to. Even after the second goal we were eager to go on and score more. They could have easily grabbed a goal and got back in it so it was important to score more.”

The Dutchman also singled out double goal-scorer Berbatov and the man who created two strikes, Nani.

“Dimitar did really well. He scored twice and Nani also played well with some great assists and the whole team performed the way you would have expected us to.”

The Reds went into the game knowing that as well as Arsenal dropping points, Chelsea had put seven past Aston Villa, but Edwin insisted the United players remained fully focused on their own performance, making points the priority rather than goals.

“It didn’t add too much pressure. We knew that Arsenal drew and that Chelsea were winning.

“Chelsea have scored twelve goals in two games and that’s a lot. In the end goals can be decisive so we knew we had to get a few but the most important thing is the three points, which is hard enough against a team like Bolton."