Time for Dimitar Berbatov to seize the moment for Manchester United

With Wayne Rooney missing, the expensive Bulgarian needs to step out of the shadows to keep the light shining at Old Trafford.

From the hyperactive Wayne Rooney they turn to the languid Dimitar Berbatov to see off Chelsea and Bayern Munich inside five days. The good news is that Berbatov has already scored three times against Germany's grandest club. Less encouraging is that Rooney's replacement as Manchester United's chief striker posted all three while at Bayer Leverkusen from 2001 to 2006.

A £30.75m centre-forward comes off the bench to hunt the two wins United need to disprove the accusation that they are a one-man band.

Berbatov is an international who has played in two Champions League finals and scored 32 times in European competition. Hardly the bare bones of United's squad. Yet the success of his elevation will depend on his response to the urgency of this five-day test and the team's ability to survive the psychological jolt of seeing their best player on crutches.

The expectation back in August was that Sir Alex Ferguson would deploy Rooney and Berbatov together but the United manager has favoured a five-man midfield with Rooney in a luxury Alan Shearer role. Tactical considerations aside, the implication is that Ferguson's faith in Berbatov has dimmed to the point where Bulgaria's six-times footballer of the year exists to give Rooney a rest or supply an extra weapon when United are in desperate need of a goal.

Like Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was lethal around the penalty area and so could justify his comparatively low work-rate, Berbatov is the antithesis of the super-busy United striker who seeslosing the ball as a dishonourable act which he has a moral duty to correct. Berbatov must know that most Old Trafford diehards are intolerant of his dreamy style.

In a long and compelling answer to a question about Van Nistelrooy's successor Sir Bobby Charlton, the embodiment of United's energetic forward play, said in the Observer last year: "I watched him at Tottenham [his previous Premier League club] and I thought he was in charge of his own destiny, that he made the right decisions. But playing for Man United is a bit more demanding. You're expected not just to do all the great things you're good at but also your share of the dirty work – which is chasing back to regain possession, helping your defenders if you're close enough to help.

"First of all I was very critical of him, to myself, thinking: 'Look at that. As soon as he loses the ball he stops running and starts walking, as if to say – somebody else will do it'. And I thought: 'He must be a good player if he can afford to do that.'"

Charlton said he had come to understand Berbatov's "really great skill, his awareness and his physical strength at holding people off. Not only that, when he passes he always makes it easy for you. He always gives it perfectly. Everything is so, so precise. Add to that, he's got his control and when he gets round the goal he wants to score.

"He's frustrating sometimes. Instinctively I think that, if I've lost the ball, I want to chase after it. I want to make up for the mistake I've made. Maybe like George Best you've got to accept him for what he is. Cantona had that arrogance. But he did his fair share of the work. I'd never complain about Cantona in that respect. He was sensational and he had an influence. Given that bit of time and space that Berbatov seems to be finding now, he'll get better and better."

Since Charlton offered that analysis, mid-way through the striker's first season in Manchester, stagnation has become the theme. Twelve goals from 27 league appearances this term is not a glittering statistic. Rooney had scored 18 times in 13 outings before a typically conscientious urge to stop an attacking run inside his own half led to his ankle injury. Berbatov has yet to score in this season's Champions League but did seize two in the weekend's 4-0 win at Bolton.

Of the alternatives Michael Owen is out with hamstring damage, Mame Biram Diouf has appeared only five times for United and Federico Macheda is an 18-year-old on the road back from injury (Danny Welbeck is out on loan).

"I'd have enjoyed playing with him but I'd have been arguing with him. A lot," Charlton said. "If you've got people running backward and forward and you're responsible, it's not right. But he's learned. You're not allowed many mistakes and you can't be casual. You can't be casual."

As a child Berbatov modelled himself first on Marco van Basten, then on Shearer. From the outset on Saturday and again on Wednesday night the United cognoscenti will look for evidence that his self-esteem has not been damaged by his slide in the hierarchy and hope he learned from Shearer the meaning of 'carpe diem'.

Pick your team to face Liverpool

Calling all armchair managers! The time has come to pit your wits against Sir Alex Ferguson and see whether he agrees with your team selection for Manchester United's Premier League match

Revenge is in the air and Ferguson will have to manage the balancing act between going all guns blazing and getting the right result. After three defeats on the spin to Liverpool, United are hell-bent on sending the visitors packing. The Scot should choose a calculated approach to get one over on Rafa Benitez.

An on-song Dimitar Berbatov can expect a return to the bench as the 4-5-1 formation favoured in big matches reappears. Wayne Rooney will lead the line on his own. The temptation to start Ryan Giggs will be great after he shook off an arm injury. In his absence, both Park Ji-Sung and Nani have shone, with the Korean expected to get the nod to flank Rooney with Antonio Valencia.

Liverpool's strength in midifeld has crushed United in recent meetings. The tight central three of Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes should correct the problem. At the back, experience is key. Gary Neville could continue his starting run, while Nemanja Vidic will be desperate to exorcise the demons of Fernando Torres and a trio of red cards.

Availability:

Goalkeepers: Edwin Van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszscak, Ben Foster.

Defenders: Gary Neville, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Rafael da Silva, Fabio da Silva, Patrice Evra, Ritchie De Laet.

Midfielders: Antonio Valencia, Nani, Ji-Sung Park, Ryan Giggs, Gabriel Obertan, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Darron Gibson.

Attackers: Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Mame Biram Diouf.

Leave your team selection in the comments below,

GLAZERS V THE RED KNIGHTS

Speaking 24 hours after the Red Knights confirmed their intention to try and buy the club from the Glazer family, Gill insisted that Manchester United was not for sale, and offered a staunch defence of the American owners. Gill acknowledged that the family may be forced to appease growing supporter resentment by taking a higher profile, but said the Knights, led by Goldman Sachs’s chief economist and former United board member Jim O’Neil, were wasting their time.

“They [the Glazers] are long-term owners and they’re not sellers,” he said.

“That’s not to say that people like the Red Knights won’t come and think that they can put a plan to them. But unless the owners want to sell, which they’ve given no indication to me at all that that is the case, then they can’t buy the asset. It’s not for sale.”

Gill said that he has not heard directly from O’Neil, who is a friend as well as a former colleague, or fellow Knight Mark Robinson, a partner at City law firm Freshfields who advised the club board when it was resisting the Glazers in 2004. He did not criticise them directly, but was withering about Harris, the executive chairman of executive bank Seymour Pearce who has been involved in several high-profile Premier League takeovers including Roman Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea.

“Keith Harris will go anywhere that there’s a bit of publicity around and we know that and we accept that,” Gill said. “That’s his modus operandi, but his track record in football isn’t anything to write home about. That’s my view of that, but these are credible people and they do what they think is in the best interests of the club but it’s not going to take them anywhere if the owners, the Glazers, have no wish to sell. From our perspective, they are running the club in the right way.”

Gill said that the club’s financial situation following the £507 million bond issue was “entirely appropriate”, with annual interest payments of around £45 million covered by the club’s growing revenues.

By contrast he questioned how the Red Knights proposed to run the club given their proposal to raise funds from up to 40 wealthy individuals.

“The Red Knights’ idea of having 20, 30 or 40 very wealthy people owning and running Manchester United, I just don’t know how it would work in practice,” Gill said.

“The best clubs, the better run clubs have clear single-decision making that iws quick and efficient. I don’t see how if you’ve got a number of very wealthy people being involved [that can happen].

“They don’t become wealthy through luck, those sort of people want to be involved in the decision making, The key clubs, Abramovich at Chelsea, Mansour at Man City, Berlusconi in Milan, even the president, the key decision maker at Madrid is not all those fans, it’s the president.

“I’m not sure what the end game is but the end game is irrelevant because the owners are long-term investors and want to keep the club for many years to come.”

The Red Knights are hoping to harness supporter unrest at the club’s debts of £709 million, and Gill acknowledged that the Glazers may have to take a more visible role to appease fans who turned Wembley green-and-yellow at Sunday’s Carling Cup final.

“What they [the Glazers] done is let me and my team run the business, they’ve let Alex run the football side, and if you look at our financial results and our on-field performance, I think that’s vindicated that approach. If, in the future, in order to appease people or to explain the long-term nature of their investment, that [a higher profile] may be necessary.”

Gill’s assault came as the Red Knights were assessing the impact of their public declaration of intent. A spokesman for the group said that they had received “an international response” from potential investors, and the Manchester United Supporters Trust reported that its membership had doubled overnight to 78,000, larger than the capacity at Old Trafford.

Reported by Telegraph.co.uk