Ferguson looks to Rooney to score

Sir Alex Ferguson says he wants Wayne Rooney to score more goals, despite praising his work rate for Manchester United this season.

Rooney has notched just three goals in 12 games this term but is joint-third in the assists charts with six – the same amount as Chelsea playmaker Juan Mata.

While Ferguson is delighted that Rooney is aiding his team in other ways, the United boss has urged the striker to focus more on his own goal return.

“I’m happy with that part of his game. It’s no problem for me,” he told reporters.

“He can contribute to the team’s success fine but we would rather he scored more. He’s going through a period that all strikers do, he’s not scoring and it will change once he starts to score regular.

“With (Robin) van Persie coming, without doubt he is an up-front player. The players are now starting to realise what a good player he is. Hopefully that understanding (between the strikers) gets better.”

Goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard commented on Wednesday that he was unsure how his ongoing competition with David de Gea for a starting berth will pan out over the course of the season.

Ferguson admits the Dane’s form is making it difficult to drop him and revealed his hesitation to continually rotate the pair.

“Anders has come in and done well,” Ferguson added. “It’s one of those situations where there is no actual reason to leave Anders out in terms of form and hopefully David understands that.”

“I’m not happy to do it all the time. That’s why I’ve kept Anders in on Wednesday night (against West Ham United).”

The Scot also confirmed that first-choice centre-back Nemanja Vidic is on his way back to full fitness after recently returning to training, with Nick Powell, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs all in line to feature against Reading on Saturday – although Antonio Valencia is likely to miss out.