Anderson ready to be Fergie´s next gem

Sir Alex Ferguson has backed Anderson to become Manchester United's next midfield legend as he prepares to unleash the Brazilian and his fellow Old Trafford young guns against Queen's Park Rangers on Tuesday.

The Premier League champions, stung by Saturday's 2-1 league defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, face Championship outfit QPR in the League Cup fourth round with boss Ferguson ready to rest his established stars.

Promising youngsters Jonny Evans, Rodrigo Possebon, Darron Gibson and Danny Welbeck are all set to be handed the chance to shine.

But Ferguson admits that 20-year-old Anderson, a 19 million pounds buy from Porto 18 months ago, is the player that he has the highest hopes for amongst his young crop when it comes to emulating the likes of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.

Ferguson said: “Anderson is a different type of player altogether to Roy Keane, but when you are looking for that central midfield player – we've got Scholes who is coming to the end of his career, Roy Keane has left us to try his hand at management – you say, 'who is going to function for Manchester United?'

“Then a 19-year-old lad comes in and you see his performance level. You know he is going to become a terrific player and life moves on. United move on, it's inevitable.

“Our style has changed over the last few years. We've got different types of players to ten years ago, so you cannot replicate every team with identical players.

“When I first came here they used to say Bryan Robson was king and you cannot win a game without him. I began to believe it as well because we didn't operate as well without him.

“We had to change the mentality – change the mental toughness. They thought you could never find another Robson, but then Roy Keane came along and filled the breach marvellously.

“Then they thought you would never get another Keane, but then someone like Anderson steps through the door and the cycle just keeps going.”

United crashed out of the League Cup to Coventry City last season after Ferguson rested his first-team stars in favour of handing his youngsters valuable experience.

The experiment backfired, however, and two Michael Mifsud goals sealed a famous 2-0 victory for the Sky Blues at Old Trafford.

Iain Dowie, who guided Coventry to that giant-killing, misses out on the chance to repeat the feat with QPR having been sacked by the west London club last month.

Caretaker-manager Gareth Ainsworth is set to remain in charge for the trip to Old Trafford after inspiring his team to a 1-0 weekend win against Cardiff City.

But the former QPR midfielder admits that the glamour clash against the European champions has barely been mentioned at Loftus Road since the draw was made last month.

Ainsworth said: “The United game has not been in my thoughts because we have had enough to focus on with the league games.

“The players discussed it when the draw was made, but now that the Cardiff game is out of the way, we can all start planning for Old Trafford.”