• Premier League

United have less 'Fergie' time without Sir Alex

ESPN staff
February 6, 2014
Beckham stands by Moyes

Manchester United are officially getting less 'Fergie Time' without Sir Alex Ferguson.

Statistics prove that the Premier League champions used to receive on average an extra 79 seconds of injury time when they were trailing under their former manager.

But, according to figures produced by Sportlobster, under new manager David Moyes, they only get an extra 39 seconds to try and score - a difference of 40 seconds.

Ferguson, who was accused of intimidating officials, had a habit of pointing to his watch to cajole referees to add more time whenever he believed opponents were wasting time or the game was being held up.

"That's been a part of it too, the pressure you try and put on referees," he admitted in May, just before he retired. "But I save mind games for opponents."

And Ferguson wrote in his autobiography: "Tapping my watch was another psychological ploy. I didn't keep track of the time in games.

His team had a reputation for making comebacks and scoring late goals, leading to injury time at Old Trafford being nicknamed 'Fergie Time'.

Moyes' United have not scored a league goal after the 80th minute since September whereas Ferguson's final title-winning team struck 12 times in the last 10 minutes of matches.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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