It was during Manchester United’s summer tour to South Africa that Sir Alex Ferguson, sat in a tiny dugout at the ABSA Stadium in Durban, served notice of his intention to use Wayne Rooney in a more central role over the forthcoming season after the manager admitted for the first time that he must shoulder some of the blame for the England forward’s travails in front of goal.

Having helped United to win the domestic title and Champions League, Rooney’s return of 18 goals for his club last season was hardly insignificant, but Ferguson seemed to accept that the player had suffered from being played out wide on too many occasions. “He’s sacrificed himself and never complained about it, which says a lot for the lad,” the United manager said. “We need to define his role better. I think his best position is through the middle.”

If that was ever open to question, Rooney has ended the debate over the past week, his four goals in two World Cup qualifying games for England coming when he was played through the middle. But while Rooney may have done enough to convince Fabio Capello, the England manager, that he is best deployed in a central role with his match-winning performances against Kazakhstan and Belarus, Ferguson appeared in danger of breaking his promise yesterday when he told the forward that he will persist with playing him out wide when he sees fit. Rooney, naturally, will not complain, and the United manager’s thinking might have changed in the wake of Dimitar Berbatov’s arrival from Tottenham Hotspur, but the 22-year-old must be wondering what he has to do to guarantee a central place.

“Not necessarily,” Ferguson said when asked if Rooney could expect to play through the centre now. “I may change him from time to time.”

With Carlos Tévez returning late yesterday from South America, where he was representing Argentina in their World Cup qualifying matches against Uruguay and Chile, Rooney may play in the centre alongside Berbatov against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford this evening, but whatever position he is used in, Ferguson is delighted to see the striker finding the net so regularly again.

“When Wayne hits these little scoring bursts, his form increases with it and that’s the route that all strikers seem to take — when they’re scoring, their confidence is high, they don’t think they’re ever going to stop, but when they’re not scoring, they don’t think they’re ever going to score,” Ferguson said.

“All the strikers I’ve had over the years have been like that, even the very best ones. They’re all subject to confidence because they put such pressure on themselves to score.”

Rooney’s record of seven goals in his past five games for club and country is reflective of the player’s habit of scoring in bursts — nine of his 20 goals for United and England last season came in a nine-match run — but Ferguson thinks that the forward will start scoring more consistently as he gets older. “When players get into their mid-twenties, their consistency improves — the goals will spread out better and hopefully that will be the case with Wayne,” he said.

With four successive wins in all competitions, Ferguson believes that United are gathering a little momentum and the manager will expect nothing less than three points against West Brom. “The consistency’s coming to the team now and a few players are getting into their stride,” he said.

Rooney, notably, among them.

- Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Manchester United have appointed two full-time scouts in Brazil as the club step up their search for the country’s most promising young players. United have four Brazilians on their books in Anderson and Rodrigo Possebon, the midfield players, and twins Rafael and Fábio da Silva, the full backs, and Ferguson has now been linked with Douglas Costa, 18, the highly rated Grêmio playmaker. “It has always been a country that produces fantastic footballers who can play in big games all the time,” the United manager said.