I expect Sir Alex Ferguson to field his strongest team on Sunday. There’s a trophy at stake, so let’s forget the future games for now - the important one is the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa.
Sir Alex wants to win everything. I imagine he wants to win all the quizzes, games and competitions he takes part in when United are on the road! That’s just the way he is and he won’t allow his players to go out at Wembley and not have the same attitude.
At the moment, everything Wayne Rooney touches is ending up in the back of the net, and long may that continue. But he can’t win the game on his own – we’ll need everyone out there playing well. The good thing is that, certainly in the last couple of months, we seem to have clicked into gear.
For me, the turning point this season was the Carling Cup game against City at Eastlands. Although we lost, we played well on the night, and were brilliant in the second leg at Old Trafford – and in several games since then.
The draw at Villa Park was a good result following Nani's dismissal, and the only blip was last weekend’s defeat to Everton, although we quickly got back on track by beating West Ham. We’re in good form, playing with a great deal of confidence and looking likely to win something this season.
Meanwhile Aston Villa have had a good unbeaten run and there is no doubting their capabilities. They are well organised and disciplined, and you can bank on having a tough time against any team managed by Martin O’Neill.
Sunday’s final represents a big opportunity for Villa. You only need to look at the fans' reaction in the semi-final, when they spilled onto the pitch after they beat Blackburn. It was incredible.
I don’t necessarily agree with Arsene Wenger’s assessment of Villa as a long-ball side, because I think they are capable of playing good football. But goalscoring has been a problem for them. They have Gabriel Agbonlahor, John Carew, Emile Heskey and Ashley Young, all good attacking players but I wouldn’t say any of them were prolific goalscorers.
Young’s strength is his running power – he takes players on, gets to the byline and crosses the ball into box. But I’ve often seen him miss what I would call easy chances. Carew is cool in and around the box, good in the air and scored a couple from the penalty spot against Crystal Palace in midweek. But he’s been in and out of the side and I don’t think he has the mobility now to cause defences a great deal of problems. I don’t expect Carew to start on Sunday - I tend to think Martin O’Neill will play one up front in Agbonlahor.
With goals hard to come by, you can understand why O’Neill’s tactics are a bit cautious. When we went to Villa Park earlier this month and were down to 10 men for so long, you’d have expected them to come charging forward in search of a winner, but they didn’t. Once you get into a routine of playing in a certain way, it’s difficult to change. That’s why much of Villa’s success is based on a solid defence. Richard Dunne, in particular, has been excellent since joining from Manchester City.
As with most Wembley finals, it’ll be a case of who performs better on the day, and which team gets the breaks. So while we’ll start as favourites, Villa have a big chance of winning the cup, make no mistake. Our lads have been to finals time and time again, but other clubs like Villa are determined to make the most of these one-off occasions.
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