Monday, August 08, 2005
Ryan Giggs says Manchester United's players are desperate to restore glory to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils spent last season in the shadow of Chelsea in The Premiership, while they suffered an agonising FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal having dominated the game only to lose on penalties.
Wing wizard Giggs feels United paid the price for not being able to see off The Premiership's lesser lights and revealed the squad's determination to secure some silverware next term.
"We dropped 14 points against the bottom six teams," Giggs told The Sunday Times. "Take the Crystal Palace game. We drew 0-0 and they were down to 10 men. We used to say, 'we're going to score, don't worry, we're going to score', and we would score. It's self-belief. Don't panic, keep playing your football. And it's the mind-set, producing week in, week out. It's what Chelsea did last year and Arsenal did the year before, and we used to do before that.
"Concentration, especially in and around goal, not making the right choices, not putting chances away - those were the sort of little things that let us down because defensively we were good."
Giggs feels Sir Alex Ferguson's side missed the impact of Dutch forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, who sat out spells of the campaign due to injury.
"We missed Ruud, no doubt about that," added Giggs. "But over the past 10, 12 seasons we've always prided ourselves on sharing the load. Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, David Beckham, myself, we've all produced double figures. Last year, me, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Scholesy all should have been scoring more goals and creating more chances.
"But that's what inspires me, a season when we've not won something. That feeling of disappointment when you're used to winning things, that strange feeling of fighting for second in the last seven or eight games. It was hard to get motivated for that, but it's what makes you want to be better.
"The players will be hurting. They'll want to get the Premiership title back."
Get it back ryan. No point winning the community shield chelsea. Teams either win that worthless shield or the epl.