They have looked nothing special in their two games so far, against promoted Birmingham City and Burnley. They beat Birmingham 1-0 but lost 1-0 to Burnley on Wednesday and although Ferguson is wrestling with a number of problems, talk of a disaster at Old Trafford would appear to be early.
Although it is too early to form any conclusions about how the next nine months will pan out, there is no hesitation United have started looking far less intimidating without Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez in the side following their exits to Real Madrid and Manchester City respectively.
United have also been suffering something of an injury crisis with goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, defenders Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic and midfielders Owen Hargreaves and Darren Fletcher all out of the side.
Although Ferguson has battalions of excellent players to call up, some are simply extremely rare.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is wrestling with the problem of how to replace the irreplaceable after watching his side lose 1-0 at Burnley in the second match of their Premier League title defence.
The alarm bells will not be ringing at Old Trafford just yet, but on the confirmation of the opening games of the season Ferguson has some work to do to avoid them from going off.
Although it is too early to form any conclusions about how the next nine months will pan out, there is no hesitation United have started looking far less intimidating without Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez in the side following their exits to Real Madrid and Manchester City respectively.
United have also been suffering something of an injury crisis with goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, defenders Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic and midfielders Owen Hargreaves and Darren Fletcher all out of the side.
Although Ferguson has battalions of excellent players to call up, some are simply extremely rare.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is wrestling with the problem of how to replace the irreplaceable after watching his side lose 1-0 at Burnley in the second match of their Premier League title defence.
The alarm bells will not be ringing at Old Trafford just yet, but on the confirmation of the opening games of the season Ferguson has some work to do to avoid them from going off.
