Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says Federico Macheda will be on the bench today against Aston Villa.

"Berbatov and Rooney missing is a bad blow to us, but it's there and there's nothing we can do about it," said Ferguson. "I've got options of course. I could play Ronaldo through the middle, I could play [Danny] Welbeck, I could play Macheda or I could play [Ryan] Giggs - the great thing is the flexibility of players, Giggs, Ronaldo, those types.

"The boy Macheda is developing at a great rate of speed now, his performances for the reserves have been very good, he's a natural finisher and he'll definitely be on the bench at least with Welbeck."