UNITED COULD USE MICHAEL BRADLEY:

Newcastle's Cheik Tioté leaves Wayne Rooney frustrated and forlorn: The Ivorian is the sort of midfield enforcer Manchester United need, especially with their key player under strain (Louise Taylor, 4 January 2012, Guardian)

For different reasons Rooney and Ferguson, too, have not always been on the same wavelength in recent times. While their frosty moments have tended to centre on non-tactical matters, the team's growing dependence on Rooney has created its own separate strains.

The player, so often asked to serve as a quasi Paul Scholes while still scoring most of United's goals this season, found himself operating very much as a striker here. He was deployed as part of a fluid front three also featuring Dimitar Berbatov and Nani and was liberated from deep-lying obligations to camouflage Ferguson's midfield deficiencies.

In theory this should have allowed him to indulge in some improvisation but Rooney ended the first half simply looking hot and bothered.

If his new hair transplant's resistance to the evening's capricious wind suggested that investment in such an expensive weave may have been worthwhile after all, his increasingly vocal complaints and irritable body language indicated that his recall was definitely not as advertised in the brochure.

Quite a bit before Demba Ba gave Newcastle a fully deserved lead later extended by Yohan Cabaye and Phil Jones's own-goal three reasons for Rooney's mood loomed large. On the odd occasions he did drop deeper in search of possession he was repeatedly interrupted by Cheik Tioté.

Tioté is very much the type of Roy Keane midfield enforcer Ferguson could desperately do with and there was little the outstanding the – along with Ba the key performer in an excellent home display – outstanding Ivorian enjoyed more than dispossessing United's leading scorer. And when Rooney moved nearer Fabricio Coloccini, Newcastle's captain delighted in leaving him similarly frustrated.