"I’m happy with the four front players I’ve started with — Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Park Ji Sung," Ferguson said. "I also have the options of playing Ryan Giggs up there if I want to and Alan Smith up there if I want to.
"I think it is an essential part of winning the league, having strikers who will get you over 35 goals between them in a season.
"We got over 40 one season with [Dwight] Yorke and [Andrew] Cole, we know Ruud is capable of scoring over 30 league goals, no question of that, and with Wayne Rooney progressing the way he is he could easily give us a partnership of goals that would play a substantial part in winning the league.
"I haven't set them individual targets, though, I have just had wee bets with them that they could never break my record. That would be impossible."
The Times:
When asked to explain where that left Giggs, his longest-serving player, Ferguson tried to clarify the matter by stating that the Welshman offers "alternatives" and praising his "versatility" which "you need at his age", but these were not phrases that would sit easily with the winger, who has been a fixture in the United team almost from the moment he broke into the first team in 1991. Being told that he was fifth choice for a four-man job would be disconcerting enough, but it is likely to be even more alarming for Giggs given that there are only three attacking places available in the 4-3-3 formation that Ferguson has come to embrace.
As with so much at United these days, the system has been devised as much by Carlos Queiroz, the assistant manager, as by Ferguson. The influence of Queiroz has been challenged in some quarters, including players and other members of the coaching staff during a difficult spell last season, but, while some supporters are restless for a return to the 4-4-2 system that served United so well in the 1990s and others have questioned the wisdom of employing Wayne Rooney in a wide position, there have been plenty of signs in their first two matches of the season to encourage Ferguson, who yesterday reiterated his belief that Rooney and Van Nistelrooy will score at least 35 Premiership goals between them.
The competition for attacking places at Old Trafford will be increased further when Louis Saha returns from his latest injury in October or November, but it remains to be seen whether Ferguson will be given the headache he wants more than any other by the return to fitness of the hugely popular Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian, who missed the whole of last season with a serious knee injury, maintains that he will play for United again, but Ferguson said yesterday: "He is doing well, but not well enough at the moment."