Positive Tension

At least Liverpool lost last night. Not that I'm one to laugh at other teams misfortunes (actually I am, especially Liverpool's) but to go out of (if we do go out of) the Champions League while Liverpool were still in it would have made everything a hell of a lot worse.
Today's papers are still poring over our "crisis" and there's some words about our "crisis" from a few players
I'll start with words from Michael Carrick, who says some good things, from The Mirror:

"Of course we can progress," said Carrick. "We've got to win a football match, it's as simple as that. It's a tough competition and if you want to win this trophy you've got to overcome problems and obstacles along the way.

"We won't get too down about things, but put things right and be ready for the run-in. We're top of the Premier League, in the last eight of the Champions League and have an FA Cup semi-final coming up. That's certainly not a bad situation to be in."

I like that "of course" and I like the perspective, "we've got to win a football match, simple," and the positivity, looking at everything we can still win. It's the type of talk that makes me dread Tuesday a little less...
The other quote I really like today is from Porto's Mariano, quoted in The Times:

“You can say they played badly, but the credit should go to us because we made the great stars of Manchester look like they weren't that great,” the Porto midfield player said.

A lot of the credit should go to Porto for the way they played. I take heart from this for two reasons, firstly that it makes talk of a crisis a little premature, we got a draw (and fought our way back into the game and should have won but for a late loss of concentration) against a team that played really well against us, and, secondly, that Porto (I'm really hoping) aren't going to play that well again in the second leg - they seemed to playing above themselves, not only going forward but defensively, shutting us down and not giving any of our players time on the ball, it was a performance that (again, I'm hoping) had the look of a one off, the type of performance a lower league team might put in in the FA Cup, they manage it over one game, but if it goes to a second class generally counts.
The same Times article has a bit of a misleading theory on our defensive lapses:

It has not helped that the central defensive partnership of Vidic and Rio Ferdinand has been disrupted

I'm not going to spend time in the context of a paper round looking at the teams of our run of games where we didn't concede, but one of the remarkable themes in that run was that there was no consistent back 4, if I remember correctly Vidic was the only constant. So, while I'm not looking forward to O'Shea and Neville teaming up again against Sunderland (if injuries mean that that is necessary), I'm not entirely sure that consistency of selection is the problem at the moment.
Vidic and Evans give their opinions on our lapses with Evans being honest enough to admit culpability for Porto's first:

"There's no doubt that we haven't been defending as well as we have done," Evans added. "You can have stages like that. It would be very tough to go through the whole season having clean sheets. But it's something we have got to address. Everyone's disappointed. I think we've gone into games in a really confident mood but, as you saw against Porto, we're making mistakes. I should have done better for the first goal. It was a bad clearance when I should have stuck it out. I just had to try to put it out of my system. I've made mistakes before."

While Vidic blames tiredness and complacency:

"I don't think it's a problem with confidence," said Vidic. "We have had many games this year – Wednesday then Saturday then Wednesday, that type of thing – and we've had a lot of players injured, and then players coming back from injury. It's difficult. We definitely need Rio back. Rio and all the injured players – Anderson, [Dimitar] Berbatov and all the rest.

"We need fresh bodies because a lot of the players are playing so much at the moment. We've had players away on international duty last week, then playing ­Sunday and Tuesday so it's hard." ...

"We've definitely had a bad period, we haven't done well and we've conceded too many goals. I don't think we're short of confidence. We've scored goals, made chances but we are having a bad time."
"After we lost 4-1 to Liverpool, that first bad game, we needed to fix it. But we didn't," said Vidic. "To be honest, maybe we have been guilty of easing off. Against Liverpool, maybe you could say we took it easier than we normally would have done because we had a game in hand and there was a big gap in points. We didn't think we were too relaxed at the time but maybe we were."

And perhaps a similar thing occurred against Porto with all the talk of the easiness of the draw.
One other positive (and this might be deemed "clutching at straws") is that the stat about Porto never losing against English opposition at home in 12 ties is not as bad as it may seem, The Sun points out that of those 7 have been draws. And a 3-3 draw would do us...
Ahead of Saturday's game, it seems unlikely that Evans or Ferdinand will feature, according to Sir Alex:

“Rio was nowhere near being fit for Porto, so it is difficult to see him being fit for Saturday. Jonny should be okay in a week, but this is what happens when you play two big games in three days.”

Added to that there's a bit of a concern about Rooney, but it sounds hopeful, from The Sun:

Rooney was hit hard on the ribs by the ball at the end of the first half of the Red Devils’ 2-2 Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Porto on Tuesday night.

He bravely played on but was clearly in some discomfort as he left the ground after the game.

Striker Rooney, 23, will be checked today and the hope is he has only heavy bruising. But even that could keep him out of Saturday’s trip to Sunderland.

Finally, The Sun has Harry Redknapp talking on our "crisis":

To stay in the Champions League, Manchester United need some very strong men.

Becoming the first British team to beat Porto at their home will clearly be no easy task.

Yet I loved how Alex Ferguson seized the moment on Tuesday night when looking ahead to his side’s mission, simply shrugging and saying: “We’ll just have to do it then, this club is good at firsts.”

United’s 2-2 draw with the Portuguese side will provide for a stern test of nerve and strength in the second leg, or else it is goodbye to Fergie’s dream of a third European Cup.

Fergie has the attitude and spirit to refuse to be beaten, as does his squad seemingly every week.

Cristiano Ronaldo has talent by the bucketload, he has breathtaking skill, amazing balance and is made for the big stage.

He has the look to suit glamorous big European nights under the floodlights and the reputation and aura of a man made to lap up the spotlight.

And yes, I've stopped that quote before he starts talking all negative...