Four hearts in a can

I like this story from The Mail (and reported elsewhere):

Cristiano Ronaldo, named as the best footballer on the planet only last week, was given Carling Cup duty against Championship side Derby by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson - in an effort to boost his confidence.

Ronaldo short of confidence? There's a first...
In more serious matters, The Guardian looks at our injury problems:

While the 4–2 defeat of Derby County at Old Trafford on Tuesday has propelled Manchester United into the Carling Cup final, there was no great sense of jubilation at the club yesterday as Ferguson and his coaching staff organised a meeting to discuss how to cope with the absence of five defenders through injury and another three back-up players who have been loaned out. As well as playing Fletcher as an emergency full-back Ferguson is considering giving a debut to Rafael da Silva's twin, Fabio, on the opposite flank.

John O'Shea, who has been deputising for the injured left-back Patrice Evra, is expected to move across to partner Nemanja Vidic in the centre of defence while James Chester will be on the bench.

The thing I had forgotten was that we have a midweek league game next week, so the FA Cup tie still doesn't give us much more time to recover. Having said that the back four mentioned in the article looks strong enough, and Evans should, by my calculation be fit for the league game. And as for the FA Cup, given Harry Redknapp's words, on the weakened team they're likely to field, after their game last night, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Some optimistic quotes from John O'Shea in the papers this morning:

And O'Shea admitted the players are focused on winning every available trophy.

'We are going for all four,' said the 27-year-old defender.

'It is something you hope for at the start of the season. There is confidence that these four trophies are all up for grabs.

'And when you have the players and belief we have, why not? Fingers crossed when the Champions League starts up again we will have a fully-fit squad. That is when we will start to dream about those sorts of things.

Why not indeed...