No Carrick, No Hargreaves, Again

Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes all missed Friday's training. The latter, of course, won't be back for a long time but the other two should be nearing fitness by now...

'There were no fresh injuries which is always a good thing,' Sir Alex said.

'Also, most players came back with good results. I always hope they get victories. Most of them had quite good experiences this week, which gives them confidence.'.

'Michael Carrick`s progressing well. We hoped he`d join but he didn`t quite make it. He`ll join us on Monday. It`ll be too early for the Celtic game though. But we know he`s on his way back and that`s a good thing.'

That's good but the word was that he would have a chance against West Brom? Oh well. And what about Hargreaves? He was definitely pencilled in for tomorrow's game two weeks ago yet now we learn he missed training.

Our options in midfield are now paper thin: Anderson arrived back only on Friday which means he might be too tired to play tomorrow so we are left with one recognised central midfielder: Darren Fletcher. I think Anderson will be used anyway, if not then Ryan Giggs who is a definite starter at any case will start in central midfield.

With all the rumours, speculations and denials swirling around Tevez it will be interesting to see whether Fergie leaves him on the bench again. I do not have a definitive opinion but I'd say that Tevez is in a much better form than Ronaldo who was pretty average against Albania on Wednesday night...

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