Trio give Fergie a headache

MANCHESTER UNITED boss Alex Ferguson has jokingly suggested he could get round Rafael’s absence against Birmingham today by pretending the 20-year-old was twin brother Fabio instead.

The lookalike pair create regular confusion at Old Trafford, often deliberate, and have even confused match officials during their time in England.

At Barnsley last season, referee Chris Foy booked Fabio instead of Rafael so confused did he get by the pair’s presence, so it is easy to see how Ferguson might get away with fielding one instead of the other.

“I could play Rafa and say he was Fabio quite easily. There is no way they could know,” he laughed.

“Probably they have the same DNA. Maybe it wasn’t Rafael who was sent off last week? It is definitely a thought.

“The referee booked the wrong one at Barnsley, so one day you could play one in the first-half and the other in the second.”

Ferguson’s joviality betrayed a tough decision for the United manager, with Fabio, John O’Shea and Wes Brown all in contention to face Birmingham at the start of a crucial four-day period that ends with a trip to Blackpool, which Rafael will return for after being handed merely an £8,000 fine and a warning for his remonstrations to Mike Dean at White Hart Lane.

Back-to-back victories would leave the Red Devils in pole position to regain their title, registering a record 19th championship in the process.

Not that Ferguson can afford to take anything for granted against a team that snatched two points off United thanks to Lee Bowyer’s last-gasp equaliser at St Andrew’s on December 28 and for whom the phrase “hard to beat” could have been invented.

“We are expecting the same battling virtues from Birmingham that we saw at St Andrew’s,” Ferguson said.

“But at Manchester United, when you play against teams who have a certain way of playing, you have to find solutions.”

One answer could be the return of Paul Scholes, who has missed 10 games with a groin injury but was denied an introduction from the substitutes’ bench at Tottenham last week when Rafael was given his marching orders.

With Park Ji-sung still absent due to South Korea’s ongoing presence at the Asian Cup, Ryan Giggs may make his 601st league appearance, knowing there are plenty more in the pipeline now a new one-year contract has been agreed in principle.

Still, it would be a major shock if Birmingham were to become only the second team to take points off United at Old Trafford this season.

In goalkeeper Ben Foster, Birmingham will have someone with additional motivation to keep United at bay.

At the start of last season, Ferguson claimed Foster would go to the World Cup as England’s number one keeper.

As it turned out, the former United man did not even make the plane to South Africa, a victim of Edwin van der Sar’s outstanding form and his own high-profile blunders against Manchester City and Sunderland that effectively ended his Red Devils career.

“Goalkeepers make mistakes which are highlighted more than any other player,” Ferguson admitted.

“Ben, he felt it. He was disappointed with himself. If he had been playing every week it would soon have been erased from his game. But he wasn’t doing that with us simply because of a man called Van der Sar. That was his problem.”

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish, meanwhile, has said United can go the entire season unbeaten. “It’s amazing that they are unbeaten and I think that they can only get better,” he said.