Fergie: Choosing between my strikers is agony

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed his "agony" at having to pick from his clutch of Manchester United strikers.

Ferguson currently has seven forwards in his squad, with Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck ahead of Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen, Federico Macheda and Mame Biram Diouf in the pecking order.

Berbatov, Owen, Macheda and Diouf have not started a game this season and Ferguson revealed the torment he claimed he endures when he has to choose between his forwards.

"It's agony - agony," he said. "We try to pick the team that has got a good chance of winning a particular game.

"For instance, in the last few [Premier League] games it's been pretty easy because the form has been so good we've no need to tinker with it and I think that was important."

Ferguson, speaking to New York-based radio station Sirius XM, reiterated his comparison between Pele and Rooney, and hailed the Brazil legend as the best player of all time in his eyes.

"It's an age thing," said Ferguson. "I was brought up when Pele was at his peak. So for me, he was the greatest player of all.

"And when you look at his stats - he played in three World Cups and scored 1,300 goals in his career - that's a hell of a figure to pull out to any critic or anyone cynical about the game.

"So Pele was phenomenal for my part, and any young player who wants to aspire to that level, they have to think seriously about scarificing themselves to this great game.

"Rooney has got all the qualities in terms of hunger, determination, desire, and I hope he has a great career, the same way Pele had.

"His work-rate is phenomenal. He's 25 now and if you look at the age of my team now, it's been cut a lot because we lost five experienced players in the summer - Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Wes Brown and John O'Shea.

"So the average age has come right down to 23 or something like that. So Wayne, at 25, is really one of the mature players in the dressing-room."

Ferguson admitted he was impressed at how quickly new signings Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David De Gea had settled in at United following their summer moves.

And Ferguson revealed he tried to sign Jones two-and-a-half years ago when the then 16-year-old featured for Blackburn in a youth game against United.

"You never know [how new players will settle in]," said Ferguson. "Some players come to a new club - and a big club like United - and some take time, while some do it right away.

"We're particularly fortunate that Young and Jones have blossomed straight away.

"And the young goalkeeper, De Gea, is just starting to get confident and an understanding of the English game, and he'll be a great asset.

"Jones played against our youth team about two-and-a-half years ago, when he was only 16, and he was immense.

"The next day I phoned Sam Allardyce, who was in charge of Blackburn at the time, to ask about him and he just laughed at me and said 'no way, he's in my first-team on Saturday'. So we monitored him from that day on."

Ferguson hailed Sunday's Premier League visit of Chelsea to Old Trafford as a "massive" occasion and backed his young team to sustain their impressive start to the season, having scored 18 goals in four games to boast a 100 per cent record.

"We've had a few big games already this season," said Ferguson. "We've had Arsenal and Tottenham early on, and now Chelsea at our ground on Sunday, which is always a massive game when these two clubs meet.

"It's a good team, this one. We've got big hopes for it but it's early season, we've had our best start for many, many years and hopefully, as we do normally do, we'll gather a bit of speed in the second half of the season. That's the important time."

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