FERGIE SET TO START
"The important thing is to pick a team we think will win the tie. But if I was going to choose one on the evidence of Saturday, I might even get a game myself!
"Hit the target. I was always told time and time again by my father and my coaches to hit the target. Make sure you hit the target. That is the only advice I can give them.
"I hope we make as many chances tonight as we did on Saturday at Portsmouth because I would expect us to take a far better percentage than nothing.
"It is an unusual situation for us. Over the years we have always been noted as a team that scored goals. Scoring has never really been a big problem in any level of our game, whether it is in the Premiership, domestic cups or Europe. We have always been high scorers every season.
"It is possible the confidence could have drained. In my experience of the position it has always been that way with strikers. When you are scoring you don't think you are going to stop, and when you are not scoring you don't know where the next one is coming from.
"That has always been the case with strikers, even the best ones. They are not unbreakable in terms of confidence. No-one has the answer to where confidence goes or when it comes back. One thing for sure is winning football games and scoring certainly help.
"As always in Europe, the key is to win your home games. If we win this one, the match against Lyon should decide who wins the group. We certainly don't want to be going to Fenerbahce needing a result because it will be a difficult place to get one.
"Our European home record has been very good in recent seasons and it's important we maintain that tonight.
“Ruud will be back. I can guarantee he will be playing," Ferguson told the Manchester Evening News.
"We need Van Nistelrooy up there again because we missed some incredible chances at Portsmouth. He's the best."
"It is important not to be too drastic with changes after a defeat like Saturday. You can get caught up in a disappointment. I could make 10 changes from Saturday easily but that could be counter productive."
Meanwhile Fergie agrees with Chelsea’s Mourinho about how hard it is to triumph both at home and abroad:
"I make the point time and time again that it is very hard for Premier League teams to do well in Europe purely because of the programme we have got here.
"When it comes to the crunch time in March when you need a little bit of help, you have internationals to contend with and if you have a run in the FA Cup and are doing well in the league, there is no respite.
"No one wants to change dates for teams who are in Europe and we end up faced with the same physical and mental battle we always have at a really important time of the season.
"I think we all recognise that it is harder for an English team to win the European Cup than anyone else."
"You can do a lot of things when you are playing well and in that respect, 1999 was a golden period for us because, apart from Henning Berg, we did not have any injuries.
"This season we have made as many changes but they have been forced on us, which makes things a lot more difficult.”