Young doubt as Rooney urged to fire

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has urged Wayne Rooney to lead his side’s revival against Everton following their derby loss.

Following their 6-1 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester City, United sit five points behind Roberto Mancini’s men in the Premier League table.

The United boss concedes the heavy loss has dented morale at the club but has called for an instant response from his players against Everton at Goodison Park.

“It’s been a tough week for everybody. It was a bad result,” Sir Alex told reporters.

“But we have to get over that. That’s the name of the game.”

“Players, supporters and staff, everybody has been involved in that disappointment, but we have to kick on.”

“Everton away is always a difficult game, a hard match, and we just hope we can recover from the disappointment of last Sunday.”

“It’s something we’ve done over the years at this club and something we have to do again. Nothing changes in football in that respect.”

“The challenge is there to be the very best.”

Sir Alex has challenged Rooney to spearhead United’s charge at Goodison Park but has admitted the hostile reception the striker is likely to receive from his former fan base could have an impact on his performance.

“We expect that (a strong performance) every week from Wayne,” he said.

“He’s had mixed fortunes there (at Goodison Park) but he’s done well in some of the games there and hopefully that will be the case again.”

“He’s scored a couple of goals at Everton in previous games, he gets booed as normal.”

“There’s so much hype around the ground every time he makes a challenge or whatever.”

“He got booked in one game there and I took him off, because there was no way I was going to give the referee an opportunity to send him off.”

Meanwhile, Ashley Young has emerged as a doubt but Sir Alex believes the midfielder could still play a part on Saturday.

“Ashley Young has got a toe injury and we’ll see how he is later today,” he added.

“The doctor says it’s nothing serious so we hope he’ll be okay for tomorrow.”