Brown ready to start again

Posted Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by PA

Manchester United defender Wes Brown refuses to get downhearted at the way his injury curse returned just as he was starting to fulfil his enormous potential.

Sir Alex Ferguson has always viewed Brown as one of the most natural defenders he has worked with at United.

Yet, on too many occasions, the 29-year-old's progress has been halted. Cruciate operations on both knees, a broken ankle and a host of muscular problems have kept Brown on the sidelines for extended periods.

It seemed those problems were at an end though when Brown stepped into Gary Neville's right-back role and became an integral member of the United side that swept to a Premier League and Champions League double in 2008.

At that stage, with a place in Fabio Capello's England team for the first four games of their outstanding World Cup qualifying campaign also secured, the future looked bright for Brown.

Instead, after irritating Ferguson by dragging his heels over contract negotiations and then getting an ear-bashing for an own goal he scored at Liverpool, Brown's career was put on hold again by a ankle injury that ultimately kept him out for all but three games of the remainder of last season.

Brown's hopes of hitting the ground running this term were wrecked by a thigh problem suffered during a pre-season game in Munich, condemning the likeable Mancunian to spend the start of this term warming the bench.

Although the defender has made three appearances, his only starts came against Burnley and Arsenal last month and he did not even make the bench for Sunday's derby clash.

So once more, Brown has a sense of making up for lost time when he features in the Carling Cup tie with Wolves.

"It was frustrating not to be able to build on where I was at the end of 2008," he said. "Getting injured for most of last season was not very pleasant but I am used to it I suppose.

"There is no point thinking 'Why me?' I just get on with it and try to be confident. I am fit at the moment. That is the main thing."

Brown will not be the only United player eager to make an impression against Mick McCarthy's men.

Ben Foster's disappointing performance against City seems to have opened the door to Tomasz Kuszczak while Edwin van der Sar completes the final stages of his recovery from a broken finger.

Kuszczak was always set to feature but the Pole must be aware an impressive display might allow him to keep his place for Saturday's Premier League trip to Stoke.

Darron Gibson gets another chance to build on a blossoming reputation, while Michael Owen is likely to start for only the second time this season after his match-winning exploits at the weekend.

Ferguson does have the option of pairing teenage duo Federico Macheda and Daniel Welbeck - who like Gibson was part of United's starting line-up for the victory over Tottenham at Wembley last March - together in attack.

However, as Welbeck operated in a wider role during the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Everton, there is a chance Ferguson will operate with three strikers, supplemented by Nani and Zoran Tosic, who are also expected to be involved.

Wolves manager McCarthy has vowed to be bold.

McCarthy, who will hand starts to strikers Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Stefan Maierhofer and winger Michael Kightly, believes going to Old Trafford to try and frustrate United would be a mistake.

He is not prepared for his team to sit back and defend for 90 minutes and try to catch United on the break.

McCarthy said: "We will play 4-4-2 against them and have a game with them.

"I don't know what team Sir Alex Ferguson will play but we will play whoever he turns out. But we are not going there to sit back and have them attack us for 90 minutes.

"That would be a recipe for disaster so we will be going up there and trying to make sure that we are on the front foot for the game.

"I have never beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford in anything but we want to try to win the game."

While McCarthy is keen to progress in the Carling Cup, he is also not hiding from the fact he would swap a cup win for three points when the teams meet in the Premier League.

He admitted: "There is the next round at stake but we all know that if you are talking about three points at Old Trafford or getting through to the next round what would we take? We would take three points.

"The Premier League is the holy grail and we all want to make sure that we stay in it."