ALEX FERGUSON has challenged Robin van Persie to top his 37-goal haul from last season.
By MARTIN BLACKBURN
His manager reckons Manchester United’s new boy has made a ‘quite remarkable’ start at Old Trafford.
RVP has already scored seven times in just eight appearances for the Red Devils as he heads up to Newcastle tomorrow.
And while the Dutchman had a sensational final campaign for Arsenal, Fergie is hoping he can top it.
If he does, it would be only a short hop to join the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo in the Old Trafford Over-40s club.
Asked if the £22million summer signing could chalk up a personal best-ever tally, Ferguson said: “I would love that to happen.
“The refreshing thing for me is he has not actually had any pre-season games.
“It’s quite remarkable having seven goals from eight games. I’m pleased with that.
“I think his fitness will improve even more. I’m quite happy with what he is doing at the moment.”
Van Persie said after his decisive midweek double in the 2-1 triumph at CFR Cluj that he hopes to be a goal provider for others as well as a scorer — and his boss feels that will come.
Fergie added: “I think he is a good passer of the ball. I think he has good vision in his passing too.
“The goal he made last week for Kagawa against Tottenham is evidence of his passing ability.”
While Van Persie has come flying out of the blocks, his strike partner Wayne Rooney’s campaign has yet to catch fire. He created both goals for RVP in Romania but has yet to open his own account for the season.
Ferguson hopes that will change, as he wants two forwards breaking the 20-goal barrier this term.
He declared: “In my experience, where we are at the moment you need two strikers who will get you more than 20 goals a season. If you get that, you definitely have a really good chance.”
Rooney has been told he may have to accept a deeper role, with the likes of Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck also pushing for starts.
United were beaten 3-0 at St James’ Park in January but bounced back to win 11 and draw one of their next 12 league games.
That took them to within a whisker of winning the title and Ferguson is looking for a similar response to last weekend’s shock home defeat by Tottenham.
He admitted: “When you lose a game, you have to recover.
“Hopefully we can get a result on Sunday but it won’t be easy. They will be buoyed up, the support is great up there. It will be a hard game, no doubt about that. But I hope we can navigate it.”
If they are to win on Tyneside, they could do without conceding the first goal again — as they have done on six occasions so far this season.
Ferguson is aware the problem must be stamped out.
He said: “I can’t even give you an answer to that. It’s not as if we haven’t addressed it.
“I thought we started the game well the other night but then we were 1-0 down.”
