Manchester United will unveil a statue outside Old Trafford next week of the “Holy Trinity”. For younger readers, that is Best, Law and Charlton rather than Rooney, Ronaldo and Tévez. But perhaps the club will need to find room for a plinth for that modern triumvirate if the Champions League final goes to plan this evening.

Sir Alex Ferguson has always spoken eloquently of two types of courage in football. There is the Roy Keane, Bryan Robson “head where it hurts” kind of bravery and then there is the courage to play the game, to be true to your talent, to take the ball and beat a man. And it is the second, in particular, that he will be exhorting from his team at the Luzhniki Stadium.

Incapable of matching Chelsea’s muscular power, United must pass around the towering Michael Ballack, the heavyweight Didier Drogba and the express train that is Michael Essien. “Play to our strengths,” Ferguson said. “Movement, passing, the ability to create openings.”

He talked specifically of the match-winning goals of Carlos Tévez — “like Eric Cantona,” he said — and of the “nerve and the courage to play” of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. It is one thing to say it, another to do it, particularly in the Champions League final and particularly against opponents who have, in many recent confrontations, handcuffed United as forcibly as a Red Square policeman faced with an anti-Putin protester.

Ferguson’s record against Chelsea is two wins in the past 14 matches — “thanks for that,” he said to the journalist who reminded him yesterday — and he knows that the previous time they met in a final, the FA Cup climax of 2007, United were smothered under a thick blue blanket. “Do you want to enjoy the game, or do you want to enjoy after the game?” José Mourinho had asked his players and they applied their spoiling tactics with a success that, if repeated this evening, may persuade Uefa to change the rules to prevent another all-English final.

So how will United cast off those shackles in Moscow? If their game truly is based on attacking verve, how can Rooney, Ronaldo and Tévez ensure that they do not spend the evening tackling back? Ferguson talked yesterday of a freshness after ten days’ rest, a break much needed by Rooney and Ronaldo in particular after suffering from injury and fatigue respectively. He talked also of a depth of squad that, in attacking terms, he regards as unparalleled.

In referring to his bench, he might have been trying to summon the spirits of 1999, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham came on to turn the Champions League final on its head. Ferguson’s options include Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Louis Saha and Park Ji Sung or Nani. But Chelsea have their own formidably powerful reserves, and United will not want to wait for reinforcements. They need to play on the front foot, to assert themselves from the start.

Against a back line as organised as Chelsea’s and shielded by Claude Makelele, Ferguson requires his forward players to commit defenders, to beat the first man, to probe for holes. To do, in other words, what Yossi Benayoun managed for Liverpool in the second leg of the semi-finals, skipping past Makelele and sliding through the gap for Fernando Torres to score.

Ferguson will want his forwards to interchange, to cross over, to swap wings and confuse. He will want Ronaldo to prove that he is capable not only of eye-catching brilliance but of elevating those around him. It is one thing to be a great individual, another the heart of a great team. Can the footballer of the year make the step up? “Maybe they don’t have the overall experience, but they’ve got the nerve, they’ve got the courage,” Ferguson said of his youthful attacking trident.

It is too soon to put them in bronze on a pedestal, but United fans and many neutrals will hope that Rooney, Ronaldo and Tévez at least stand on a winning rostrum this evening.