Reds have pitch concerns

Sir Alex was afforded his first glimpse of the Estadio Jose Alvalade's pitch when the Reds trained at the ground on Tuesday night.

Nineteen United players spent an hour on the turf, running through light ball-work, a half-field simulation match and attacking exercises before finishing with a thorough stretching session. The grass, however, appeared patchy in places and came away from its roots on a number of occasions.

"The pitch isn't great," the manager said. "It's cutting up badly and they have a problem with that. I think one half of it is worse than the other.

"We played here for the opening of the stadium in 2003 and we had terrible problems with the pitch on that day. I don't think they've ever sorted the problems. They've renewed the turf this summer but they're still having the same problems."

United squad at training on 18 September: Van der Sar, Kuszczak; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Pique, Evans; Ronaldo, Eagles, Scholes, Carrick, Gibson, Anderson, Nani; Giggs, Rooney, Tevez, Saha