NO PENALTIES

The Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that the penalty taking duties have been taken off the hands of Wayne Rooney at least for the moment.

The striker Wayne Rooney has missed some crucial penalties this season. His latest miss came in the match against West Ham United in the third round of the FA Cup, which could have sent the team out of the tournament once again at this stage. As a result, United decided to hand the penalty taking duties to the veteran Ryan Giggs. The 39-year-old scored from the penalty spot in the 4-1 win over Fulham during the weekend.

Ferguson acknowledged the fact that Ryan Giggs is the best penalty taker at the club. He is currently taking the opportunity from Rooney to take penalties for the club. Rooney has been consistently overshadowed by the star striker Robin van Persie, who arrived in the summer. While Rooney has managed just seven goals in 15 matches, van Persie has already scored 18 goals in 23 matches. Rooney has been at Manchester United since 2004, and he has missed 10 penalties during this period. However, two of them have come in this season itself. United managed to progress to the last 16 stage of the FA Cup following the comfortable 4-1 win over Fulham.

"I think Ryan's probably one of our best penalty takers, to be honest. I think it's fair that with Wayne missing the penalties he has, it was time to give him a break. He'll come back to it, though, there's no question about that," said Ferguson after the match. Giggs scored the penalty after just 3 min on the clock. Rooney scored his first of the game in the second half before a brace from the Mexican Javier Hernandez gave United a comfortable victory.