Sir Alex Ferguson has reiterated his desire to deploy Wayne Rooney in a central striking role, imploring the Manchester United forward to keep his wandering to a limit.
Ferguson recognised that it was in Rooney’s determined nature to want to get involved at every opportunity.
He told Inside United magazine: "The boy's got a real hunger and drive about him. He has so
much energy that sometimes he overdoes it in the sense that he wants to
use it all; he'll drop into midfield or he'll go outside left.
"But he's young, and young players tend to sometimes be that way - they want to spend all their energy on the pitch."
Ferguson
consistently played Rooney in deeper roles last season, often to
accommodate the talents of Cristiano Ronaldo. With the Portugal forward
now at Real Madrid, the United boss has given the responsibility to his
Scouse striker to lead the line.
The move has paid instant
dividends this season, with the former Everton man topping the scoring
charts with four Premier League goals thus far in 2009-10.
Ferguson
said, "If he concentrates like he did at Wigan and spends more time in
the central areas rather than the wide positions then he will get
goals. There's no doubt about that."
Rooney has been a prolific
goal-scorer since joining United in 2004, but Ferguson suspects Sir
Bobby Charlton's club goals record at Old Trafford will be difficult to
beat.
"It'll be very tough," the Scot said. "Sir Bobby's record
is 249 goals, so at this stage of Wayne's career I'd say he'll have to
do very well to get anywhere near that."