Vidic: No Goals, No Problem

Returning skipper Nemanja Vidic insists Manchester United’s lack of goals during this year’s pre-season tour is not cause for concern.

The Reds have netted just three times in the first four Tour 2012 matches and played out a 0-0 draw against Valerenga in Oslo on Sunday. But Vidic, who made his first appearance in eight months in that fixture, says there were plenty of positives to take from the experience.

“When you see the kind of chances we’re creating it’s a relief,” he told ManUtd.com. “I know we haven’t scored many goals so far but it will come.

“We’re not clinical in front of goal yet but we have the next few games to work on that and fix that. I’m not really worried about it.

“If you look at the team that played on Sunday I think we had about five or six players who were playing their first game after almost two months.

“Some played almost 90 minutes and to do that after nearly two months off is a difficult ask, especially when we played against a team that has 15 games already in their legs.

“But I think a lot of guys have returned from their summer break a lot fitter than usual. You can see it in their body language and this is a positive sign.

“We had some chances in Oslo and we didn’t score but, overall, we got what we wanted out of the game, physically.”

United’s next run-out comes on Wednesday night, when the Reds take on European heavyweights Barcelona in Gothenburg.

The two sides also met during last year’s pre-season tour, with Sir Alex’s men winning 2-1 in Washington DC. A repeat of that scoreline would be most welcome on Wednesday, Vidic admits, but whatever the result he says United will benefit from the fixture.

“You want hard games during pre-season,” he said. “We want to be prepared as best we can for the first game against Everton.

“I think it’s important to have tough games before the beginning of the season and hopefully one of those will be Barcelona. Actually, I know one of those will be Barcelona!

“But I think both us and Barcelona are concerned more with fitness and playing good football at this time of the season than we are with winning. Everything we’re doing is geared towards being ready for the start of the new season.

“For me, it was really good to have 60 minutes in Oslo. Hopefully I'll play even longer against Barcelona and I should be fit for the beginning of the season.”