Striking options sans Mr. Rooney

Well the papers had speculated and ABUs had hoped for it but now its happened how will we cope without Wayne Rooney? Although nothing has been confirmed, it is thought Rooney will miss 2 to 4 weeks with a sprained ankle and frankly it couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient point of the season.

With the title run in as close as ever and us trailing Bayern Munich following the first leg of the Champions League quarter final, we will need everyone especially the strikers to stand up and be counted.

Despite the victory on Saturday without Wayne, the talk of United being a 1 man team persists so now would be the ideal time for the rest of the team to put such a notion to bed.

Dimitar Berbatov has borne the brunt of many fans as well as the media ire but now is the perfect opportunity for him to show his worth and silence his critics in Rooney’s absence. His performances have been vastly improved this season and he showed on Saturday against Bolton that he can lead the line with his two goals. His performance drew the praise from his team mates specifically Gary Neville and last night following Rooney’s injury Nemanja Vidic also nominated him as the man to shine during Wayne’s spell on the sidelines.

Yesterday Sir Alex expressed his delight at having Kiko Macheda available again following  the young Italians injury hit season. Macheda earned his place in United folk lore last season with a late winner against Aston Villa and then a goal against Sunderland in the following game so he has been in the spotlight before. Although just 18 he has shown he can handle the pressure and we hope that if called upon again this season he can answer in a similar fashion to last season.

We are not left completely bare without Rooney, as well as Berbatov and Macheda there is also the untested Mame Biram Diouf showing that there is still quality in our striker department. It’s just a matter of these players forgetting the circumstance in which they are called upon and playing as well as we know they can.