Manchester United Transfer News: Alex Ferguson 'Satisfied' with 'Decent' Performance; Fletcher Believes Youngsters Will Learn from Experience

Nov 21, 2012 12:36 AM EST

Sir Alex Ferguson chose to take out the positives of the Champions League match on Tuesday after an under-strength Manchester United side went down 1-0 to Galatasaray in Turkey.

With passage to the next round already secured, Ferguson chose to rest the likes of Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra, and giving starts to youngsters Nick Powell, Alexander Buttner and the fit-again Phil Jones.

Burak Yilmaz scored the only goal for the home side, and Ferguson was reasonably satisfied with his side's performance. "I think they handled the atmosphere and the temperament was good," Ferguson said. "They handled that okay.

"Parts of the game were good but the area in which we were worried about -- set-pieces -- we suffered. That was always going to be a worry for us.

"Other than that, I was satisfied and it was a decent performance. We had some good attacking play in the first half and at that point the only trouble they gave us was from outside the box. It was a very competitive, good game."

Midfielder Darren Fletcher also believes the youngsters will learn a lot from the game, especially after playing in such a hostile atmosphere.

"All the young players who played tonight did fantastic, and playing in an atmosphere like this will only stand them in good stead for the future," Fletcher told Sky Sports. "In difficult conditions -- the pitch wasn't great and it was an intimidating atmosphere -- I thought we did extremely well, especially in the first half.

"As soon as they got the game they slowed the game right down with a lot of tactical fouls, got behind the ball and made it difficult.

"But we really should have got a goal in the first half and we had great opportunities when we broke on the counter-attack.

"Simple shouts like 'man on' and 'turn' were proving difficult to hear, but you've got to experience that, you've got to deal with that," Fletcher added.

"The biggest problem was the pitch, which wasn't good at all. It was difficult to play one-twos and quick passing because the ball was bobbling up, but I thought especially in the first half we did enough."

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