The United boss is still sticking by his defence despite some worrying performances, reports DANIEL TAYLOR

IT WAS May 2007 and Alex Ferguson was toasting the first of his title wins against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. His head, he admitted, was already a little fuzzy from the previous night but he had sent for another bottle of champagne and was drinking from a plastic cup when the conversation turned to the player who had been the biggest threat to Manchester United re-establishing themselves as England’s premier team. “I kept saying: ‘Will somebody please shoot Didier Drogba?’” he said.

As Ferguson’s men prepare to renew hostilities with their most credible challengers, the natural assumption is that he might regard the compelling power of Drogba’s game and its concussing effect on opposing defences with an unusually high degree of trepidation, particularly at a time when the wear and tear to Rio Ferdinand’s body has undermined United’s defence. That would be to underestimate Ferguson’s faith in the returning Nemanja Vidic, a warrior in his own right, but the manager will also be aware his team are some distance off their most parsimonious.

In Ferguson’s own words, United were “strung out very easily” in the 3-3 draw against a moderate CSKA Moscow side on Tuesday night. There was even a rare admission from Ferguson that he himself was at fault, having chosen a system to suit Michael Owen without appreciating how it would leave them vulnerable to fast, incisive counter-attacking. “That’s my fault,” he added. “We went very open, a straight 4-4-2, and we kept being caught on the counter-attack. It was unlike us.”

United, he promised, would not be so open in the meeting of the Premier League’s first and second placed teams but he stopped short of claiming to be satisfied with the way his team had defended this term. So far they have conceded 11 goals in 11 league games – hardly catastrophic but a goal-per-game ratio that will have to be fine-tuned.

An improvement is needed, Ferguson acknowledged, and he noted that it was after this weekend a year ago that United set out on their record-breaking sequence of 12 consecutive clean sheets, not conceding another league goal until Blackburn Rovers scored at Old Trafford on February 21st – in game time, 1,334 minutes.

Always willing to back his players when they are under scrutiny, Ferguson speculated that his team were capable of emulating that feat but it may be some time before he can put out his first-choice defence again, with Ferdinand’s recurrent issues with his back and lower leg increasingly perplexing the club’s medical staff. The manager could not even pinpoint a possible date for his return when the subject was pressed on him.

“There’s no improvement, put it that way,” Ferguson reported. “We don’t know exactly where his calf injury is coming from, whether it is coming from the lower back or a nerve thing. Calf injuries are usually two to three weeks but there’s no sign of him recovering from this injury. We’re looking at the whole situation, whether or not it’s because of his back – but in the meantime he’s out.”

Ferguson’s body language suggested that United will have to learn to get by, with Jonny Evans likely to partner Vidic at Stamford Bridge at the expense of Wes Brown. “We’ve got Brown or Evans,” Ferguson said. “Last week they were tremendous against Blackburn and, strangely enough, on Tuesday night Evans was magnificent, particularly in the second half.

“Although CSKA scored three goals, I find it hard to fault my central defenders. I don’t think they were at fault really. I just think we were too open. In a way we experimented a little bit on Tuesday. It didn’t particularly work but, saying that, by being so open we created 10 to 12 chances, good chances. It’s the devil and deep blue seas sometimes.”

United have managed only six clean sheets from their 15 games in the Premier League and Champions League and it was put to Ferguson that the constant changes in defence, through injuries and suspensions, had been partly to blame. “It didn’t affect us last year when we had the same situation,” he argued.

“When we were on that run of 12 clean sheets we were changing the back four all the time. So the players are there. We are lucky we’ve got a good squad so I don’t see why that should be the problem. You also have to look at the number of goals scored in the Premier League this season as opposed to previous seasons. It’s the most there has been, so maybe we are just in one of these unusual seasons. But it would be nice to get clean sheets, no question about that. It makes a difference.”