Best ever start with Red Devils but now I want more.

Byline: SIMON STONE

WAYNE ROONEY has admitted he is enjoying his best start to a season in his Manchester United career.

Following Cristiano Ronaldo's world record pounds 80m move to Real Madrid, Rooney has been pushed into the forward role he craved with Manchester United.

Although Fabio Capello had long ago decided where Rooney did most damage and acted accordingly, there has generally been another option for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Even when Rooney was the best orthodox striker, Ronaldo's increasing reluctance to defend meant Ferguson could only trust the England man to do the job that was needed on the left.

However, in the immediate aftermath of Ronaldo's exit, Ferguson promised Rooney a striking berth. The Scot has honoured that pledge and been rewarded with five goals already from the pounds 27m hit-man.

"The first four or five games have gone reasonably well," said Rooney.

"In fact it is probably the best start I have had to a season for Manchester United goalscoring wise.

"I am really enjoying it. The manager has come out and said I will play up front and obviously I am pleased about that.

"I was looking forward to the start of the season anyway. It was a bigger challenge because we had lost Cristiano and Carlos Tevez.

"We haven't played as well as we can do but we have still got three good results and that is the main thing."

The shock capture of Michael Owen earlier in the summer means Rooney is an obvious man to ask about whether England's fourth highest goalscorer will ever reclaim his international place.

Diplomatically, the former Everton star feels Capello is the right man to judge, although he did confirm Owen has performed well in training at United and that his confidence will have received a major lift thanks to his recent goal at Wigan.

Of more immediate importance is England's friendly with Slovenia tomorrow. The game has been arranged as a warm-up for next week's World Cup qualifier with Croatia, the country that denied England a place at Euro 2008.

Revenge of sorts was gained last September, when Rooney added a single strike to Theo Walcott's memorable hat-trick.

That Zagreb triumph put the Three Lions onto a qualification path they will end next week if they can complete another victory over Slaven Bilic's men. "Croatia beating us at Wembley, which made us not qualify for Euro 2008, is still something we look at," he said.

"If we can turn it round at Wembley, just two years later and beat them to qualify for the World Cup, it would be a very sweet moment for us."

It would also provide Rooney with a personal aim.

When asked to recollect England's exit from their last two tournaments, Portugal in the quarter-finals would appear to be the common denominator.

Yet for Rooney, the additional disappointment came with a broken metatarsal and a red card, crucial incidents in themselves, but also represented a dismal way to wave goodbye to a major competition.

"I do have unfinished business in major tournaments," he said.

"Because of the injury and then the red card, personally the tournaments have not just ended with England going out but in real disappointment for myself. "Hopefully, if we get there, I can have a bigger impact and influence the games and results positively for England." There was positive news from the England camp yesterday afternoon, with all players doing some kind of training, including skipper Fabio John Terry and Wes Brown, who had sufficient question marks over them on Wednesday to warrant the call-up of Bolton's Gary Cahill.

Nevertheless, no risks will be taken with Terry in particular given the importance of Wednesday night's game.

It is the other end of the field Rooney is more interested in of course.

There is an increasing expectation that in-form Jermain Defoe could replace Emile Heskey. But Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch offer additional alternatives, with Rooney feeling he is capable of partnering any of them.

"We have strength in depth among our strikers, which is important," he said. "But I don't have a preference for which one I play with.

"Last year at United I had Dimitar Berbatov, who is tall, and Carlos Tevez, who is small.

"With England I have played with lots of forwards, including Emile and Michael, who are both different, and I have also played up front on my own.

Capello "I will adapt to whoever I am playing up front with. I don't think there is a problem with that."

CAPTION(S):

United striker Wayne Rooney