Former Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen admits Sir Alex Ferguson would even confuse his players with his determination to keep his tactics secret.

Meulensteen has admitted his job was sometimes made harder by the fact Ferguson liked to plan his starting line-up three games in advance without alerting the players until mathday.

"The hardest thing was, we hardly ever played 11-a-side with the team (in training)," he told Stadium Astro. "This is the team we're going to play, then you mirror it with other players but that hardly ever happened because Sir Alex Ferguson didn't want to give the team away.

"We always thought three games ahead.

"We'd play in the league, then the Champions League, then this game.

"Sir Alex had a line-up in his head for the third game, then the second, then the first.

"So then I had to work in training, because I knew who was going to work and play together, on what sort of relationships are important.

"It was not always easy, so we were almost playing with half a team.

"Players would say 'why can't I play with him?' 'I can't tell you!'

"But it worked, because the manager would only tell the team on the matchday."