Rooney can make the boo boys pay — Fergie
Rooney has been vilified by the fans of his former club and in one previous Goodison Park match Ferguson admitted he had to substitute the England striker for fear the crowd would get him sent off.
Ferguson needs Rooney on top form if United are to show once again that they can suffer heavy defeats and still bounce back.
The United manager said: “He’s had mixed success going to Everton. He’s scored a couple of goals in previous games and gets booed as normal.
“He got booked in one game and I took him off because he’d been booked and there was no way I was going to give the referee an opportunity to send him off.”
United have shown in the past that one heavy defeat need not be the end of their title campaign — they famously lost 5-0 to Newcastle in 1996 but ended up cruising to the title — but Ferguson admitted the club has been suffering from the drubbing by City last Sunday.
He added: “It’s been a tough week for everyone. It was a bad result but we have to get over it — the fans, players, employees, staff — everyone was involved in the disappointment. We must kick on. We enjoyed Tuesday night at Aldershot but we need to show ourselves [today].
“We hope we can recover from the disappointment of last weekend. We’ve done that well over the years and we have to do it again. Nothing changes in football. The challenge is always there to be the very, very best which we hope we can do now.”
Ferguson went to watch Everton play Chelsea in the Carling Cup in midweek and is expecting the usual robust encounter at Goodison.
“It’s not going to be an easy game,” he said. “I went to see that game on Wednesday and in typical fashion of a David Moyes team they were all committed. They put a shift in.
“He’s had a few injuries and he rested a few players which is the norm in the cup, but they still represented their club very well. We know it’ll be a tough game. That’s what our focus is on.”
Former United player Louis Saha has shown signs recently of rediscovering his form but Ferguson hopes that does not come to the fore today.
“I hope he’s hopeless!” he joked. “We know what Louis is capable of, he has fantastic qualities. He did okay the other night when he had a difficult job playing up front on his own, but he’s very capable we know that.”
Ashley Young is a doubt for United with a toe injury and the England winger will be assessed before this afternoon’s match.
Nemanja Vidic and Tom Cleverley are both in contention after playing against Aldershot, while Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen will be hoping their midweek displays might earn them a starting position, with the United manager insisting: “I keep hearing this about players who are not picked, but they’re always on my mind. They’re good footballers.”
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