Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has heaped praise on his side after they cruised past the dangerous Newcastle 3-0 on the road in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Red Devils went down 3-0 at St James’ Park last term, but turned the tables with goals from Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Tom Cleverley.
Defenders Evans and Evra scored from set-pieces, but afterwards Ferguson praised his midfielders for dominating the contest.
“It was an excellent performance. The players were focused and their concentration was terrific. The determination was great and we played some great football in the first half,” Ferguson said.
“The strange thing was, although we were creating a lot of problems, we scored from two set-pieces which is pretty unusual. Defenders scoring you will take, because winning big games like this are important.”
Ferguson continued: “Our football was terrific in the first 20 minutes. I wanted to try the diamond again after some success against Cluj and it worked very well for us, though there were moments in the second half where we had to change it. It offers different options for us.
“Obviously, Manchester United is renowned for our wide players and at one point we did go that way, but we played so well on Tuesday against Cluj I thought we should find out how far we can go with that diamond system. The football we played from the central positions with Cleverley and Kagawa, Rooney and Carrick was terrific.”