Shades of ’99 as United eye Cup upturn

Manchester United 4 Fulham 1

But, in the wake of a fourth round romp that could have ended in a double-digit victory, there is one area in which the 2013 United squad need to catch up with their predecessors — by winning the FA Cup.

It is a curious anomaly in the modern game. United, record 11-time winners of the FA Cup, have not won the world’s most famous club cup competition since 2004, a fact that leaves Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher as the only current Reds with winner’s medals in their collection.

At least the message appears to be getting through, not only in the strength of the line-up selected by Ferguson but also in the urgency and effort shown by his players, none more than the 39-year-old Giggs who opened the scoring from the penalty spot almost 20 years to the day since his first FA Cup goal.

The rest of the goals were claimed by Javier Hernandez (two), and Wayne Rooney, meaning that the quartet, including Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck now have 47 goals to their name as they chase success in three competitions.

By contrast, at this stage of the 1999 campaign, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had hit the target 46 times.

Of course, the only statistic that matters is the number of trophies those players deliver and ending the club’s poor recent FA Cup history is clearly a high priority.

“All the people should know that we want to win the Premier League, the Champions League and this one,” said Hernandez. “Imagine if players were here for 10 years without winning the FA Cup?

“My team-mates and myself want to win the cup, we have a lot of hunger for this cup and the Premier League and Champions League.

“It’s pleasing to score but the most important thing for me is to win games, we have a chance in the FA Cup and now we have the league matches.”

Hernandez, indeed, looks like holding the key to the collective productivity of Ferguson’s strikers. Van Persie and Rooney are proven and consistent marksmen at this level — the modern day Cole and Yorke — but if the 24-year-old Mexican can maintain his current output, 14 goals in 24 games this season, he could prove an even greater supporting asset than either Solskjaer or Sheringham.

The point is not lost on his manager who is impressed by the young forward’s contribution to date. “Chicharito got the break in the summer, the little rest and that has shown the benefit,” said Ferguson. “It’s a terrible dilemma when I have that lad there — sometimes I leave him out to bring in Robin van Persie but as I explained to him we regard him so highly, he is a fantastic professional with an unbelievable attitude to the game. He never stops running or working and every training session is the same. So I’m pleased for him and it’s good to see Wayne back scoring as well as Chicharito getting two. If those two and Robin get to the 20-plus mark we’re definitely in business.”

Ferguson also claims his options — not just in attack, but all over the field — are as good as at any time in his Old Trafford reign, a boast which seems fairly outlandish until one examines the United bench against Fulham. Van Persie, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa were all watching from the sidelines for the opening hour at least and such was United’s dominance that even Brazilian midfielder Anderson looked impressive.

“I don’t feel 100% yet, I have to train a little bit more and maybe have one or two more games before I am 100%,” said Anderson, who has had five-and-a-half largely unproductive and injury-plagued years at United.

“What is important for me is to not have injuries any more as it is hard when you think everything is fine and you have the pace back again but then you’re out for a month and back.

“Now it’s going slowly and there are no problems and I’m playing in matches with no problems.”

For Fulham, six points above the relegation zone and sinking fast, exiting the FA Cup makes Wednesday’s Premier League meeting with West Ham even more vital, with manager Martin Jol placing a lot of faith in on-loan Arsenal youngster Emmanuel Frimpong who is poised to make his debut.

“Sometimes you have to do something so if all these big players are not coming in you have to try to do something and I think he’s quite a good warrior,” said Jol, who saw Aaron Hughes head a late consolation at Old Trafford. “I think he was red-carded in his first game but we are not the youngest team in the league and maybe he can give us a bit more legs.”

MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-2): De Gea 6; Rafael 6, Smalling 7, Jones 8, Evra 6; Nani 6, Anderson 7 (Valencia 70, 6), Carrick 7 (Scholes 60, 7), Giggs 9 (Kagawa 70, 6); Rooney 8, Hernandez 8.

FULHAM (4-4-2): Schwarzer 8; Riether 7, Hughes 6, Hangeland 5, Riise 5; Duff 5 (Rodallega 60, 5), Baird 4 (Karagounis 46, 7), Sidwell 6, Kacaniklic 5; Ruiz 5 (Dejagah 70, 6), Berbatov 5.

Referee: M Clattenburg 6.