Boss: Chicha makes me think

"It is a concern we’re losing a lot of goals, but I must say some of our football was terrific tonight, we played some fantastic football and we created a lot of chances. We kept a really good momentum to our game and played with good speed.

"We got a result most people would not have expected us to get after being 2-0 down - being 2-0 down in a European tie is very difficult - but credfit to the players for the way we came back."

The manager disagreed with the interviewer's notion that playing Michael Carrick out of position at centre-back and handing a Champions League debut to Alexander Buttner were reasons behind Braga going 2-0 up early on.

"I think we did the right thing [to rest Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra]," replied Sir Alex.

"It wasn’t Michael Carrick’s fault for the first goal. He did his job well.

"I think you have to look at the big picture with Rio’s age. We have a big game on Sunday against Chelsea, Chelsea on the Wednesday, Arsenal on the Saturday, we’ve a massive programme coming up now and it’s important to utilise the squad we have.

"Okay, at the moment with Vidic out and Jones and Smalling not available, then putting Michael back there in  defence is not the best but he does his job well."

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