PLAY ROONEY TO HIS STRENGTHS

Last updated : 07 December 2006 By Ed

Ferguson has admitted that changing Rooney's position in the team changed the game against Benfica last night.

"We've got to this situation and we seem to torture the supporters and the staff, but at the end of the day we can live with that.

"When Benfica scored, that was what lifted us. As the game went on, we got better and better.

"(Initially) we played slowly and didn't cope with their system well. Once we lost the goal we did start to play."

"We got good penetration, put Wayne back in his normal position, and that made a difference," said Ferguson.

"We've too many young players to play with patience. When they play the cut-throat way, they're a good team.

Ferguson is also proud of United's performance.

"I think winning the right way is obviously important to this club.

"But if you said before the game, 'Would you have taken a scabby goal off someone's knee-cap?', I'd have said, 'Absolutely'.

"But at the end of the day we've done it this way and I think it's the right way."

Benfica coach Fernando Santos admitted the Vidic cost his team the tie.

"The goal they scored at the end of the first half caused us a lot of problems," he said.

"We started well and although we had difficulty in possession from defence to attack we were controlling the game.

"Then United had four or five minutes of possession [at the end of the first half] and the goal changed the game.

"In the second half United were too strong for us."