Vidic: I Will Be Ready

Nemanja Vidic says Manchester United were given a tough test in the 1-1 draw against AIK Fotboll at the Friends Arena in Stockholm on Tuesday – and the Reds skipper believes it was the ideal run-out to improve fitness before the start of the season.

It was Vidic’s first outing for the first-team this summer and his first full match in pre-season. Now he believes that he will be fit and firing when United’s Barclays Premier League title defence gets underway against Swansea on 17 August.

“I am pleased that I have 90 minutes under my belt,” Vidic told MUTV. “It’s a long time since I’ve played a full game. I am pleased with that and I hope that after this game I can pick up my fitness and I will be ready for the beginning of the season.

“It’s frustrating when you don’t get the games. I’ve done some good training, but it’s different when you’re playing a match. I got 90 minutes tonight and we have two more games before the start of the league season. Hopefully I can get another 90 minutes before then.”

Robin Quaison gave AIK the lead early in the second half as he escaped the attentions of Vidic before smashing the ball past substitute goalkeeper Ben Amos in the United goal. Vidic otherwise was very solid and even picked up the event organisers' Man of the Match award.

“AIK worked very hard and they made some trouble for us,” added Vida. “We allowed them too many chances and we have to improve our shape in defence. We can work on that and I think we will be fine.”

It was Vidic’s first match for a David Moyes United team and the Serbian centre-back is pleased with the progress the Reds are making under the new boss.

“When you change the manager it’s a different type of training and preparation for the games,” he said, “but we’ve done nothing that we didn’t do before. We’ve worked really hard and we have two more games to pick up our freshness and then we will be ready for the start of the season.

“We have trained really well and it’s the matches we need now. These kind of matches, against AIK, are a good test for us. They are in the middle of their season and they played some good football. We found it a difficult, testing match. I want that, I want difficult matches before the start of the season so we are ready for some big matches at the beginning of the campaign.”