Sir Alex Ferguson does not intend to rest his big guns for Valencia's Champions League visit to Old Trafford on Tuesday even though Manchester United have booked their ticket into the last 16 phase.
Sir Alex Ferguson does not intend to rest his big guns for Valencia's Champions League visit to Old Trafford on Tuesday even though Manchester United have booked their ticket into the last 16 phase.
Four wins from five Group C games have guaranteed United a place in the knockout stages with one game to spare.
Valencia's visit comes just six days before United entertain Arsenal in a top-of-the-table Premier League showdown which is swiftly followed by another huge game for Ferguson's men at reigning champions Chelsea on December 19.
But the United manager has no intention of resting his key players ahead of those two key fixtures when his men take on Valencia, who are also through to the next stage.
Although the match is effectivey a dead rubber, Ferguson wants to make sure United to finish top of the group so they avoid the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona until the latter stages of the competition.
As it stands, Valencia have to win at Old Trafford to finish above United.
"We will be playing a strong side because we want to top the group," said Ferguson. "Real Madrid are top of their group, Barcelona are top, Bayern (Munich) are top.
"It's not that you're afraid of them but you want to keep them out of the road until later.
"Valencia will want to be top of the group too, so it should be an interesting game. They changed their system for the first time I can remember when they played Villarreal a few weeks ago.
"They went five at the back, which is unusual for them. They've always had a back four with one sitting in front."
United lost their position at the top of the Premier League at the weekend after their scheduled game away to Blackpool on Saturday was postponded due to a frozen pitch.
That allowed Arsenal to open up a narrow one point lead at the summit. The postponement also denied United the chance to return to winning ways after a team featuring the likes of Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea and Wes Brown was hammered 4-0 at West Ham in the League Cup last Tuesday.
Brown hopes to keep his place against Valencia, but the England defender is already eyeing United's two huge pre-Christmas fixtures with Arsenal and Chelsea which could go a long way to shaping the title race.
"Maybe in seasons gone by you'd look at the fixture list and say, 'Right, we should get nine points out of those three games and six out of those two'; and then you'd go into the games against Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal wanting to win, but perhaps focusing more on not losing," said Brown.
"Now you have to win those games so you can lay a marker down in terms of your title ambitions.
"The thing about Arsenal and Chelsea, though, is that they have great players and they know how to win."
Owen Hargreaves and Antonio Valencia remain long-term absentees although Michael Owen is close to making a comeback from a hamstring injury.
However, the Valencia game is likely to come too soon for the former England striker, who has been sidelined for two months.
"Michael Owen's training now, he's doing very well," added Ferguson. "But I would say he's two weeks away (from playing).
"We need to make sure he does a good stint of football training before we bring him into the games."
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