Rio's respect for new signings

Rio Ferdinand is full of admiration for United's new signings after their less than ideal introduction to life at Old Trafford.

The Reds defender says injuries and suspensions to established players have not provided the best platform for Nani and Carlos Tevez, when they would have preferred to slide into a more settled side.

"It isn’t easy for the new signings to slot in, especially when there are a lot of injuries and the side’s a bit fragmented," said Ferdinand.

"It’s been a difficult period for them, but they’ve done well. Carlos’ movement, his know-how and his nous around the pitch have been very, very good.

"Nani’s the young player with huge potential. It’s fantastic for Nani, having come to a big club like United, to hit the target like that.

"In that respect he’s similar to Ronaldo, he can hit the ball so hard that as long as he hits the target he’s got a chance of scoring like he did today.

"Hopefully we're going to see a lot more goals like that in the future."

Reds triumph in Malaysia

Febian Brandy struck the only goal of the game as United overcame Juventus to lift the prestigious Champions Youth Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

The diminutive striker hit his third goal of the tournament in the second half to finish as the Reds' joint top scorer - along with Sam Hewson - as Andy Welsh's side ended up worthy winners of the competition in its inaugural season.

Juve had only conceded one goal en route to the final, but had no answer to Brandy's strike in the 50th minute as he negotiated a way past two defenders and drilled a low effort home.

United's defence held firm throughout the rest of the game in relative comfort, as they held on to become worthy winners of the high-profile competition.

Having negotiated a route past Porto, Boca Juniors and Internazionale in the competition's group stages, United ousted Barcelona and Brazilians Flamengo before beating Juve in Sunday's showpiece final.

Sir Alex calls on Carlos

Wayne Rooney's injury woe will hand Carlos Tevez an unexpected debut in Wednesday night's trip to Portsmouth.

Hitherto United's only fully-fit striker, Rooney suffered a fractured foot against Reading and is likely to miss the new few weeks.

With Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer back in training, but without any pre-season action, Tevez will start the game at Fratton Park despite his own lack of match-fitness.

"Carlos will start on Wednesday against Portsmouth," confirmed Sir Alex at a press conference to unveil the Argentine. "I would have preferred to wait for the Manchester City - that would have given him a few more days' training.

"But for the forthcoming few weeks, he will fill the position Wayne would have occupied."

The United manager also played down suggestions of a knee-jerk foray into the transfer market to further bolster the Reds' striking department.

"With Wayne as well, we have four strikers so I am not looking at a situation where I have to add to that number," he said.

Edwin's final revenge

Edwin van der Sar admitted the Reds' Community Shield success went some way to atoning for last season's FA Cup final disappointment.

The Dutch stopper was United's match-winner, saving penalty kicks from Claudio Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Philips.

"It's a great feeling," van der Sar told Sky Sports amid the Reds' celebrations.

"It's a little revenge for the cup final and also gives us a boost before the start of the league. I've never saved three penalties in a row."

Despite his heroics at Wembley, Van der Sar admits his record in shootouts is not the best.

"I was 5-2 down on penalty shootouts during my career, so this makes it 5-3," the 36-year-old said.

"I think we deserved the win – we played the better football and created more chances than them. Chelsea only had the one chance at the end of the first half.