Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce believes Manchester United are still to replace departed pair Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ahead of today's clash at Old Trafford, Allardyce cited Fernando Torres as an exampled of what United are lacking.

He said: "All you can safely say at the moment is that United have lost a little of their old ability to kill a game with the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Some players are capable of winning a game on their own, sometimes with a single act.

"That is exactly what Fernando Torres did at Liverpool last week. Very few other players would have scored that goal, maybe Steve Gerrard could have done it, but I don't know. The point is that when you lose players of that calibre, they are hard to replace. Ronaldo and Tevez were both like that, they could just come up with something to stun you, and United presently lack something they had last season.

"Antonio Valencia is a good player, no doubt about that, but he is not going to pop up with those sort of goals. Dimitar Berbatov might, but United are still waiting for him to turn into that kind of player."