An audience with Alex Ferguson rarely invites comparisons with Kevin Keegan but there were times yesterday, as he dissected the early blips of Manchester United's season, when it was tempting to believe he had just been reading the former England manager's autobiography.
Never mind the fact that United are yet to keep a clean sheet this season. No matter that Newcastle had just become the first club to put four goals past them in 23 months.
As United prepared to begin their Champions League odyssey against Lille at Old Trafford tonight, Ferguson seemed blissfully untroubled by his side's shortcomings.
"Do you want me to bore you all with nil-nils?," he replied to innocent probing into his team's capacity for regular defensive aberrations.
"We've reached some heady heights this season, been involved in some great matches and that's the way we will continue," he said.
"We'll keep going until you have a heart attack."
The case for United's defence - only Leicester and Middlesbrough have conceded more in the Premiership - may have been indefensible at times this season. But just as Keegan once observed that he was not the man to get a 0-0 draw in Georgia, Ferguson was not going to apologise for the gung-ho spirit that threatens to curtail his final ambition of returning the Champions League trophy to Old Trafford.
"For me, it's all about the positives," he said. "No team can play as well as we did in scoring three goals away from home at Newcastle on Saturday. Coming back from 3-1 to level it at 3-3 was incredible.
"Yes, we'd like some clean sheets but the most important thing is the quality of our attacking play. It has been absolutely first-class. If we win every game 4-3, I will be more than happy."
The unerring belief that, however many their opponents scored, United would always get more that swept them to European glory in 1999. But beneath the public facade it would be unwise to believe Ferguson will really be encouraging such an attitude again.
Several times already this season the United manager has emphasised the need for control, describing his team as having been naive in Europe over the past two years.
Publicly, Ferguson may say there is no cause for concern. Privately, after one clean sheet in 17 matches, it is unimaginable that he will not have stressed the negative implications of further defensive lapses.
Certainly Lille, having disposed of Parma in the qualifiers and unbeaten in the opening seven matches of the French League, cannot be underestimated.
Yet Lille appeared to be harbouring an inferiority complex after training in Manchester yesterday, with their Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic expressing fears that they could be made to look "a laughing stock".
Only two seasons ago Lille were languishing in the French second division. But their remarkable momentum since Halilhodzic took charge, finishing third in the league last season, brought a comparison from Ferguson yesterday that they were the Ipswich of French football.
"What they have done should be admired across the football world," said Fabien Barthez, United's French goalkeeper.
"To have gone from the French second division to the Champions League in two seasons is a phenomenal achievement." Even so, Halilhodzic would clearly have us believe an absolute mismatch is on the cards. "We won't set out to be sacrificial lambs but if you compare the teams it looks like someone has made a mistake throwing us together," he said.
"It doesn't sound right for Lille to be mentioned in the same company as Manchester United."
Ferguson reported no injury problems last night and is expected to field his strongest line-up, with Paul Scholes restored to play just behind Ruud van Nistelrooy.
MANCHESTER UNITED (probable) (4-4-1-1): Barthez; G Neville, Brown, Blanc, Silvestre; Beckham, Veron, Keane, Giggs; Scholes; Van Nistelrooy.
