United searching for solutions as ghost of Ronaldo lingers

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When Gary Neville was asked recently how Sir Alex Ferguson could possibly fill the enormous void left by Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Real Madrid, the Manchester United captain seemed to regard the question as an affront to the club's history.

"A short-sighted observer who perhaps hasn't followed United over the last 20 years will say that we won't be able to recover," Neville said, "but I've always found big-name departures present an opportunity for somebody else to step up to the plate and deliver. I think that's what will happen this season. You might see a slightly different style of football but you'll definitely see players coming to the fore."

Neville could hardly say anything else, you might suggest. United have been trying to put on a brave face ever since the world footballer of the year left for Real Madrid and Carlos Tevez jumped ship to Manchester City. As the kind of man who has Glory Glory Man United as his ringtone, Neville was unlikely to admit if he harboured any private concerns that the likes of Nani, Zoran Tosic, Park Ji-sung and maybe even Michael Owen are not up to the job.

The party line at Old Trafford this summer has been that the club has lost great players in the past and managed to cope, that the tactics will change and that, if everything goes according to plan, new heroes will emerge. Or, in the case of Owen, that an old one will re-emerge. Yet the one thing that nobody at Old Trafford, Ferguson included, has been able to clarify ahead of tomorrow's Community Shield is how they intend to devise a system in which they can score enough goals now that the 'Fab Four', just like the original version, has split into two – and especially as one of the remaining members is, to some of the more impatient United followers, the Bulgarian equivalent of Ringo Starr.

That might be harsh on Dimitar Berbatov but Ferguson has admitted himself that it was a "strange" first season for the £30.75m signing and that, in hindsight, "maybe we didn't use him in the right way". Which is about as close as United's manager will ever come to admitting that one of his signings has not done as well as he had hoped.

As statistics go, the most startling one is this: out of the 119 goals that United scored last season, Berbatov and Rooney combined directly to score only two of them. Berbatov created one for Rooney in a 4-0 rout of West Bromwich Albion in October. Six months later, Rooney set up Berbatov during the second-half elixir against Tottenham Hotspur that saw United turn a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 win – although, strictly speaking, Rooney was playing on the left wing at the time rather than as one of two central strikers.

All of which means there is a certain amount of pressure on Berbatov in particular to improve this season, especially as Ferguson recognised this week that Owen has "reached a stage of his career where he won't figure in every game".

The intention is to play Berbatov "higher up the pitch", as a more orthodox centre-forward. Rooney will not be "sacrificed" to play on the left, Ferguson has promised, and will revert to the classic No10's role. "I don't think the responsibility of getting more goals will affect him," Ferguson said. "He's got the mental strength for that kind of thing. He goes on these bursts of goals and if he can do that more consistently over the season he will get to 25 and above."

Whether Ferguson will be bold enough to change his favourite 4-2-3-1 formation might become clearer at Wembley tomorrow although it seems unlikely in the long run, even if United played in a throwback 4-4-2 against Valencia on Wednesday, with Rooney operating just behind Owen in attack.

Ferguson is also encouraged by the development of Danny Welbeck and, in particular, Federico Macheda. "He is going to give me real problems," Ferguson said. "He is exceptional for his age – a top, top player. So it is not a bad position for us to be in."

Yet Ferguson's mantra this summer has been that his midfielders need to start weighing in with more goals. Anderson, for example, whose failure to score in two years at the club, spanning 73 performances, has become a standing joke among the fans, but not one that amuses his manager. Nani, whose performances have been erratic at best, will be expected to flourish now that he has extra responsibility. He and Park are both capable of getting double figures, Ferguson believes, and the same applies to Valencia, who cost £17m from Wigan Athletic but has scored only six times in the last two seasons.

It is a question, according to Ferguson, of which player wants to take over from Ronaldo. "Whether it is Rooney, or Macheda, or Welbeck, or Nani, they all have to say, 'Well, this guy was exceptional'. And the only way they can get there is by practice."