Boss Brands Tour A Success

Sir Alex Ferguson labelled the pre-season tour a success after United made it five wins out of five by beating Barcelona in Washington DC.

Goals from Nani and Michael Owen gave the Reds a 2-1 victory over the European champions at FedExField, to add to triumphs over MLS All-Stars, Chicago Fire, Seattle Sounders and New England Revolution.

As well as forming a winning mentality in the squad, Sir Alex is satisfied that the tour has helped his players reach full fitness for the new season, and that he’s given enough game-time to both his new signings and younger players.

“We're happy winning the match against Barcelona,” he said. “To be honest, both teams made a lot of changes so it's difficult to gauge exactly the importance of the result.

“But the expectation is for us to win all games and we're delighted to go into the season with a winning frame of mind. We've integrated the new players well – they've done well settling in with players they don't really know.

“I'm sure we're fit, I'm sure we've got a good squad and I've got some good young players coming through. These are all plusses – we have a squad able to deal with the demands of the English and European game.

“Now we move on to matters back home and hopefully we keep our form.”

One of the Reds’ three summer signings, David De Gea, played the full 90 minutes and Sir Alex again emphasised the Spaniard’s capabilities.

“Replacing van der Sar is very difficult,” the boss said. “He was a great goalkeeper, but the benefit we have with De Gea is that he's 20 years of age.

“The qualities he has that stood out for us are great composure, great use of the ball, he's quick, agile and I think we banked on that. When we assessed him I thought he was the right goalkeeper to take.”

Rafael was forced off after only 17 minutes but Sir Alex added: “He got a knock in a challenge with... [Sergio] Busquets, I think it was. He should be okay.”

Following Paul Scholes’ testimonial next Friday, the Reds’ first competitive game of the season is on Sunday against Manchester City in the Community Shield.

One player who won’t be featuring at Wembley is Javier Hernandez, who is not expected to return for three to four weeks.

“Javier's coming back with us to England – he's fine,” Sir Alex added. “He won't play for a couple of weeks, but that was always going to be the case because of his participation in the Gold Cup, and don't forget he played in the World Cup last summer.

“He was always going to get a break until he did his proper pre-season. In a two-week period now he'll do some training but he won't play – we'll have him back in three to four weeks.”