MACHEDA WILL MOVE

The agent of the Italian striker Federico Macheda has said that his client is likely to leave Manchester United in the January transfer window after growing frustrated about the lack of first-team opportunities in the club. The 20-year-old Italian striker made his debut for the club in the most stunning manner after scoring his debut at the club win the match against Aston Villa 3-2. However, he has lost his way since then and has not been part of the first team under Sir Alex Ferguson. The manager has sent him off on loan deals to various clubs in the last two years, but that has not been any different from his situation at Old Trafford.

Rather than move once again on loan deal this season, the striker decided to stay at Old Trafford and fight for his opportunities. The arrival of Robin van Persie from Arsenal for £ 24 million changed the situation. His arrival has meant that Sir Alex Ferguson has four strikers at his disposal apart from Federico Macheda. This has seen him get very little opportunities to even get on the first-team bench. He did not even start the league cup match a few weeks back.

“How can he be decisive for the team if he never plays?. Manchester United have some phenomenal players in attack, so it is truly difficult for Federico to find space. It’s not true what they write in the English papers that he’s going through a bad spell. He wants to play and if he cannot do so by January then we’ll try to find an alternative solution. I will talk to Sir Alex Ferguson over the next few days,” said the agent of the player. He only has a few years left on his contract and is expected to move in the January transfer window.

DEFENCE WINS PRAISE

The Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has praised the defence of the club by saying that it was some of the important reasons for them comfortably winning against Newcastle United during the weekend. Manchester United came into the match against Newcastle United after having just been beaten by Tottenham 3-2 at Old Trafford. In fact, this is not the first time Manchester United have conceded more than two goals this season.

As a result, there have been a lot of questions asked about the defence, which does not have many key players like Nemanja Vidic and Smalling. Liverpool news even linked United with a bid for Daniel Agger.

However, the players managed to keep a clean sheet in the match against Newcastle United during the weekend. The 3-0 win help the Manchester United reached the second position in the Premier league table ahead of the rivals Manchester city. Speaking after the match, the England international Wayne Rooney said that it was extremely important that the club kept a clean sheet in the match because it is one of the hardest games during the course of the season. He has also acknowledged the fact that the club have not defended well in the first few matches of the season, but is hoping that they continue in this form throughout the season.

“It’s a great result. Everyone knows this is probably one of the hardest games of the season. We came here, defended brilliantly. We fully deserved the victory. The first six games of the season we haven’t defended well enough — not just the back four, the whole team, and today we were brilliant against a physical team,” said Wayne Rooney after the match. Despite this victory, Manchester United are still four points behind the table leaders Chelsea. Manchester United will be facing Chelsea in the next few weeks in the Premier league and the league cup.

UNITED SIGN ANOTHER YOUNGSTER

Manchester United has signed the Chilean youngster Angelo Henriquez.  Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, has confirmed the signing of Henriquez. Ferguson said that Henriquez has become 18 years old now. So, he has got working permit which makes him eligible to sign for the club. He is a very talented young footballer. He is enormously capable at such a young age. He has shown his skills playing for Universidad de Chile and he is a very good buy for the club.

Ferguson has also made it clear that Henriquez is the last player to be bought by the club this summer. Ferguson said that he is quite satisfied with the players that he has had and he is not going to sign any more player this summer. United has signed five players since the opening of the transfer window. Those five players are Alexander Buttner, Robin Van Persie, Shinji Kagawa, Nick Powell and Angelo Henriquez. Buttner has been signed by the club this week and Ferguson hinted that he might get a chance to play in the United’s second game of the season against Fulham.  As per Ferguson, Buttner has looked in good nick in the training sessions and he might be sent on to the field at some point of time in the match against Fulham.

Manchester United hasn’t made a very good start to the season and the team lost its opening match against Everton by 1-0. On being asked about that match, Ferguson said that he is very disappointed with the team’s performance in that match. The team should have easily won that match, but, the players looked rusty and didn’t show enough hunger on the field. On being asked about the club’s new signing Robin Van Persie, Ferguson said that Persie went on to the field pretty late in that match and it is not easy to go on to the field and score straight  away. Ferguson hinted that Persie would be a part of the first XI in the match against Fulham.

Focus on Macheda

Young Italian forward Federico Macheda was snapped up by Manchester United from home-town club Lazio at the tender age of 16 and burst onto the Premier League scene with a spectacular last minute winning goal in his debut game, a 3-2 victory of Aston Villa in April 2009.

He repeated the trick in the next match away to Sunderland, again scoring the winner, ultimately ensuring that the Premier League trophy would stay at Old Trafford for a third consecutive season.

Despite this early blistering form, he struggled to break into the Manchester United first team and made only a handful of appearances in the following two seasons.

He has spent the majority of the last two seasons out on loan- firstly to Sampdoria during the 2010/11 season, and secondly to Queen’s Park Rangers during the latter half of last season. However he endured a fairly torrid time during both spells, again featuring for the first team only intermittently, and failing to score for either club. Injury cut short his stay at QPR and he has since expressed his relief to return to United for pre season training.

Despite failing to make the step up thus far, Sir Alex Ferguson obviously retains hope that the young forward can still live up to his potential, having included him in the squad for United’s pre-season tour of South Africa and the Far East.

Macheda went some way to showing that this faith is warranted, his fine finish proving to be the decisive goal in United’s 1-0 victory against Amazulu in their first warm up game of the tour.

Another loan move has been touted in the press, and with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov to compete with, first team chances could again be few and far between should he remain at Old Trafford.

Regardless of where he ends up this season, Federico Macheda will be desperate to ensure that this is the year when the scintillating talent which has been witnessed in fits and starts over the past few seasons can be materialised into a run of consistent goal scoring form.