Ferguson: Rooney one of the best

(GSM) – Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson praised Wayne Rooney after the England star produced an excellent performance against Milan, scoring two goals in the process. Ferguson believes the United striker is finally one of the world’s best players.

Rooney’s second-half double in Tuesday evening’s 3-2 Champions League victory over AC Milan at the San Siro were his first European goals of the campaign. The goals took Rooney’s overall tally for the season to 25.

Ferguson was clearly delighted with Rooney’s latest performances and how the English forward’s skills were too much to handle for Milan’s ageing defense.

“His second-half performance tonight carried on the form Wayne has been showing recently,” said Ferguson.

“He is in absolutely devastating form. They could not handle him. They just could not handle him in the second half. I thought he was marvellous.”

Ferguson has noted a marked improvement in the 24-year-old’s abilities in the last few months.

“There has been an improvement in his game over the last two months,” said Ferguson.

“Confidence has a lot to do with that but it’s also his ability as a player.

“As I’ve said about him on a number of occasions what he has to do is improve his goal scoring. That is what he is doing now.

“When you look at the way he is performing at the moment he must be regarded amongst those players at the highest level.”

Ferguson believes Rooney will break the 30-goal barrier for the season, which is probably a conservative estimate given his present form.

Rooney didn’t look entirely happy with Nani in particular during a difficult opening for the Red Devils.

Ronaldinho put Milan in front after just three minutes and, with the Brazilian and Klaas Jan Huntelaar going close, Ferguson admitted United’s start was poor and gave the Italians a morale boost.

“It was a bad start and it gave them encouragement,” he said.

“It was a bad period for us. We could have been two or three goals down. We were desperate to hang on and thankfully we got ourselves back into the game.”