Blame the players not Moyes, says Giggs

RYAN Giggs insisted Manchester United's players needed to look long and hard at themselves after a poor start to the season.

Ryan Giggs and David Moyes

RYAN Giggs had not quite broken into the Manchester United first team the last time the club endured a poorer start to the season. That was 24 years ago, but the Welshman has been around for most of the intervening period and, regardless of the transition taking place, he had no intention of sugar-coating what has been an uneasy beginning under David Moyes.

The new manager may have been happy to shoulder the blame, but Giggs insisted it was the players who needed to look long and hard at themselves.

"Sir Alex (Ferguson) was a great manager and a great influence on the club -- you are going to miss someone like that," Giggs said. "But I don't think that is an excuse when individuals aren't playing as well as they can. We are not playing well as a team. We haven't got injury problems as we have had in the past. There is no excuse."

There was evidence in the Ukraine on Wednesday evening of United slowly getting things together. After being sliced open with almost embarrassing ease in their past two outings in the Premier League, there was discipline and determination against Shakhtar Donetsk that was so sorely lacking against Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion.

This being United, of course, it is not enough just to be hard to beat. Supporters will welcome a little defensive doggedness but not if it inhibits the team's attacking instincts in the medium to long term. For the time being, a finger needs sticking in the dam. United captain Nemanja Vidic suggested after the 1-1 outcome at the Donbass Arena that "sometimes you shouldn't enjoy yourself too much in football", an acknowledgment of the importance of plugging the yawning gaps between midfield and defence.

"We tried to enjoy ourselves too much in the game (against West Brom) and forgot we have to defend as well," Vidic said. "I think in terms of that we improved [against Shakhtar]. We didn't let them create too many chances to run through our defence."

Sunderland is the opponent at the Stadium of Light today. United has not lost three successive league games for 12 years but if the Shakhtar match was one it could not lose, the need to return to winning ways in the league is pressing after three defeats in the past four fixtures.

Wayne Rooney is likely to return after missing the Shakhtar game with a swollen shin but there may not be too many more changes and it would be no surprise if Moyes were to stick with the three-man midfield that served him well on Wednesday.

"It's not the most difficult season I've had," Giggs said. "There have been topsy-turvy seasons in the past. I have been in the team for 20-odd years and I have seen more or less everything.

"You would rather be showing this form at the start of the season than at the end. You have just got to hang in there to the turn of the year, as we always say, and then hopefully hit a bit of form like we historically do.

"We saw that (West Brom cut through too easily) at the weekend and you just cannot have that in the Premier League. If you expect to . . . put pressure on the top teams, we have to sort that out. We did it against Shakhtar and we have to carry on doing that."

Giggs said he did not feel a greater sense of responsibility simply because he is now also part of the coaching staff. Nonetheless, the midfielder admitted that there was no more margin for error, before noting "it is a weird season".

"(Manchester) City have been beaten twice, nobody has hit the ground running who we'd have expected to," he said. "There is enough time for us to get back to the top."

Giggs made his 145th appearance in the Champions League, including qualifying matches, against Shakhtar, eclipsing the record held by Raul, although the former Spain striker's appearances came in the competition proper. Just as the Real Madrid fans had given Giggs a standing ovation at the Bernabeu last season, so he was warmly clapped on to the field by the Shakhtar supporters. "I am getting applauded more by the away fans than the home fans at the moment," he said. Many a true word is said in jest, though.