David Moyes has confirmed Manchester United’s defensive trio Nemanja Vidic- one of the defenders nominated for the 2013 FIFPRO World 11-,Patrice Evra and Chris Smalling could miss Tuesday’s Champions League tie against Shakhtar Donetsk through injury.
One of the Scotsman’s achievement since taking charge of the English champions was booking a place in the last 16 of the Champions League with a game to spare.
But United requires a point against the Ukrainian champions to seal top spot in Group A and avoid most of Europe’s heavyweights in next week’s knock-out round draw.
“It’s important to (finish top of the Champions League group) and give ourselves the best possible chance in the next round,” Moyes said in his pre-game press conference.
“It’s important to give ourselves the best possible chance that we have in the next round. But the big job was to qualify in the group and that’s already been done.”
The 50-year-old said he takes “complete responsibility” for his side’s recent poor run of form, which has seen them drop six league points at home to Everton and Newcastle United. He urged his players to improve in a number of areas, including passing, creating chances and defending.
“The players are hurting because they are used to winning. When we don’t win that hurts. They’ll respond in the right way,” Moyes added.
“We’ve been inconsistent at times and we’ve played very well in the Champions League, not so well in the Premier League. We’ve lacked a bit of good fortune which could have made the difference.
“It’s tough because the expectancy is to win all the games. I think we’d like to generally play better so I think it’s all around we’re trying to improve.”
United have failed to score in their last two matches and have conceded 6 goals in their previous four league games while coming back to stage 2-2 draws away at Cardiff in November and Tottenham on December 1.
Tuesday night’s Champions League visit of Shakhtar comes in the wake of the 5-0 thrashing of Bayern Leverkusen on November 27. United top Group A with 11 points, three ahead of the visiting Ukrainians with a better goal difference (6).
Moyes knows anything other than a win or draw could be disastrous to his position at the Old Trafford outfit.
The good news is that Shinji Kagawa, who missed Saturday’s loss because he had had to have his stomach pumped after eating too much following their Everton defeat, is back to full health and in contention to play. “Shinji trained today and I think he’ll be okay tomorrow,” he told reporters.
