THE words of Sir Alex Ferguson after Manchester United's 4-1 defeat against Manchester City at the weekend held a certain resonance.

In his post-match inquest, Sir Alex said the biggest thing that had come out of the match was his defence's lack of communication and his comments rang true with some of the problems we have faced recently and hopefully remedied after Saturday's 0-0 draw with Torquay.

Manchester United have lost their leader at the back in Rio Ferdinand and, for that match, they were also without one of their main organisers in Gary Neville. If you take two talkers out of defence it is going to have an impact and that is something we have had to work on.

I think the biggest difference between our defensive performances against Kidderminster and Scunthorpe and that against Torquay started from Chris Porter. He was always talking and organising and that came through into the back three who, in turn, took more responsibility.

You have to get on with your job and sort that out first but then you need to look at helping the other players around you and it is the 'keeper who needs to set things off. He sees the whole picture from behind and has the ability to organise.

I think Tim Howard organises for Manchester United but it's his first season. The players are getting to know him and he's getting to know the players.

Peter Schmeichel, of course, used to have so many ding-dongs with his Old Trafford team-mates but it was nothing personal and does not do any harm. It's like two lovers - it shows that you care. But it also showed that he was a winner.

Teams that are successful are full of such players and, ideally, you would have 11 out on the pitch not just in defence. Roy Keane, for instance, wins accolades for being a great player but his vocal influence is sometimes under-estimated.

Criticism has also been levelled at Alex Ferguson for not signing a new defender when he learned that he would be without Rio Ferdinand.

But I think he didn't bring anybody in because he did not feel there would be anybody out there who would be better than what he already had or would fit into the Manchester United structure. He now knows that he might have to wait until the summer or whenever Rio gets back.

It is a similar scenario to our search for strikers this season, although there's obviously a slight difference in finances! But, by the same token, we did not want to bring anybody in for the sake of it.

I also believe the defence is the foundation of every successful side and leaking goals concerns you more as a manager than not scoring them because you have to keep clean sheets in order to win games. That's why we had success at the start of the season and once you have got the defence well organised then you can work on your strikers getting you goals, which is a department Manchester United rarely struggle in.

Updated: 11:01 Thursday, March 18, 2004