Ferguson turns to Scholes for inspiration

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has sung the praises of Paul Scholes in the build-up to their clash with Fulham on Monday night.

Scholes had arguably one of his best ever performances in a 3-0 win against Fulham in 2009, when he scored a trademark 25-yard volley and was heavily involved in both of the other goals.

Scholes also scored his only goal of last season against the Cottagers with another superb strike, but Ferguson will look to utilise the midfielder’s creative qualities to break down a Fulham side on a good run of form, despite a 3-0 loss to Swansea last weekend.

Prior to that defeat, Martin Jol’s men had only conceded two goals in six hours of football, underlining their defensive resilience.

And Ferguson feels Scholes can be the key to unlocking their defence on Monday.

“He can dictate the tempo of games very well and the rhythm of our game,” Ferguson said.

“He has the experience which helps him do that. He has a terrific football brain. The reason he wanted to retire was because he wanted to play 50 games, not 25; he didn’t think that was enough.”

Ferguson had intended to bring the former England international back into the United engine room slowly, but has been surprised by just how well Scholes has coped with the added game-time and responsibility during the intense title race with Manchester City.

“I said to him at the time he would play 25 games for me no problem, but he didn’t want that. Maybe he felt that was maybe me not giving him enough appreciation,” he said.

“What I was trying to do was look at it in a sensible way and think what do you get out of a 37-year-old? How many games can you get out of him?

“The way we control Ryan Giggs (in terms of the number of games he plays) – he’s different from the rest and we’re treating Paul Scholes exactly the same now. There will be games where we maybe leave him out, but we also know the games he can play in.”