Rarely over the course of the last few years has Wayne Rooney had cause to fret about the composition of Sir Alex Ferguson's team-sheets but that may be about to change as Manchester United attempt to make up for lost time and points this season.

Four into three starting places does not go as far as United's newly strengthened strike force is concerned and though the manager fell short of stipulating yesterday that Rooney may find himself kicking his heels on the bench, he made it clear that everyone will miss out – including Rooney, who has been eclipsed by Carlos Tevez as Ferguson attempts to fit Dimitar Berbatov into his new strike formation. English players, as much as foreigners, know that rotation is a fact of life, according to Ferguson. "They know it has to happen. They accept that," he said. "They don't like it and nor do the foreign players. Eric Cantona wanted to play every game. But they can't. It's just a fact of life."

Though Berbatov has contributed next to nothing since his glittering first 10 minutes at Anfield, Rooney has also looked forlorn and frustrated at times – particularly on the right wing against Liverpool. Ferguson put Rooney's latest struggle for goals down to United's difficult start. "He's maybe not getting a lot of chances," the United manager said. "We've been at Liverpool and Chelsea, not easiest places to go to. Look at our record at Anfield, in the last few years we've only scored one goal in each game. A difficult place to go. Fans on top of you. They gave Wayne a real hard time."

The physical challenge presented by Bolton, visitors to Old Trafford today, is hardly the easiest way for Ferguson to record a first home win of the campaign and he did not resist a dig at Kevin Davies' physicality, despite Bolton manager Gary Megson's defence of him yesterday. "It is hard to defend him when he makes tackles like he did last week," Ferguson said. It was a reference to Davies' challenge on Arsenal's Gaël Clichy in which Davies won the ball.

Ferguson has a big squad to choose from given only Michael Carrick and goalkeeping duo Tomasz Kuszczak and Ben Foster are missing. Rodrigo Possebon is absent, too, although the damage to the young Brazilian's leg – a deep gash – is nowhere near as bad as Ferguson feared when Emanuel Pogatetz thundered into him during Tuesday's Carling Cup win over Middlesbrough.