EDWIN van der Sar is urging Sir Alex Ferguson to raise the bar for Cristiano Ronaldo and re-set his goal target.
The 21-year-old is a mid-season frontrunner for the PFA and Football Writers' Association Player of the Year awards for 2007, and is favourite to land the Old Trafford honour as well.
Four goals in United's two Christmas matches at Aston Villa, and at home to Wigan when he only played the second half, have upped his goal figures for the season to 10.
He is now just five strikes off achieving the pre- campaign target set by the United boss. But goalkeeper van der Sar says the Portuguese winger can lift the Reds' title challenge even more.
"Ronny is in a good spell. He has been scoring goals and playing well for a couple of months," said the Dutchman.
"The manager has made a target of 15 goals for him this season, but I think we should maybe lift that a little bit now.
"If he gets to 20 then, for sure, we will have a good chance this season.
"He scored two nice goals at Villa and the crowd reacted to him when he came on as a sub against Wigan.
"He enjoys working and training. He does everything well. He is a young guy who is still improving. He is living his life on the pitch and working hard.
"Cristiano is getting better and better. He is still only young, but he is more mature now as a footballer."
Wizardry
Ronaldo has wooed the Reds support since his é12.5m arrival from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2003 with his wizardry.
However, he could frustrate in equal measure by over-doing his tricks and not having a consistent end product.
But this season Ronaldo has added intelligence and understanding to the magic.
"He has loads of qualities with the ball, but is more aware now in terms of his positional play, the runs he can make, the other players who make runs for him, and of creating space for other players," said van der Sar.
"I think it is his most productive season so far. He is scoring more goals and delivering more crosses. He has been excellent for us."
Ronaldo's United future was brought into question in the aftermath of the Wayne Rooney red card and winking incident in Portugal's World Cup quarter-final with England.
The player believed the episode could drive him out of England and publicly expressed a desire to join Real Madrid.
He was talked round into staying in Manchester and the verbal abuse from opposition fans has spurred him on rather than ruined him.
"I wasn't in England after what happened with Cristiano at the World Cup, but I can imagine what the papers and TV were saying," added Edwin.
"It was a country-versus-country situation and you do the best for your own country.
"The United fans have stuck with Cristiano and I think the opposing fans see the quality he has and the joy with which he plays the game.
"He will get occasional booing but that's all right. I thank that only serves to drive Cristiano on to even higher ground, to greater heights.
"Cristiano hasn't let what happened, and the reaction, affect him at all. He is a very strong guy and has shown that this season."
Where can Ronaldo improve his game? Have your say.
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He can improve by not blasting the free kicks at the wall every time.I know he's scored a few crackers...but he get about 1 goal in 20 attempts...gotta stop....get rooney taking the free kicks
He looks menacing at the moment.His game is becoming complete.There's an option now of if the strikers aren't doing it shift them wide and let Ronaldo play up front.Rooney,Rondo,Solksjaer are all capable of playing out wide or up front.UNITED have great variety in attack.
george lets deploy rooney wide on the left like fergie likes to do you must be in a very small monirty to suggest this. Ronaldo is our best player by far but please accept the 2 goals on tuesday were from set plays. ronaldo is the best goalscoringwide player in world football lets play him to his strengths
Kev, agreed, his free kicks are not the best, he tends to go for power apposed to placement.The Southapmton kid Bale looks a treat with his free kicks, although he is a left back(where we have sufficient cover), too inexperienced. But it would be nice to have a free kick specialist again, juninho or ronaldinho perhaps, lol
OK Bobby merry xmas!
w/out any doubts, Ronnie is the best player we have on the pitch.
he has everything to be one day the best in the world.
get NANI Fergie too.
Bobbydazzler; I think I meant to use him as a striker tactically within the game.Some days you can see we're 1-0 down 75mins gone and running out of ideas.All of a sudden Ronaldo is a big guy with footwork moving into the danger zone.I think it would create panic at a time the opposition think they're coping with it.I wouldn't start with Ronaldo as a striker but if I was a centre back I wouldn't want him coming at me with his fancy footwork and lightening quick skill.It could turn the match.That's what I mean..what do you think?
Does Lampard owns the record for more goals by a midfielder in a season? if true , how many goals is this record?
The only way he could improve is if he remedied his weakness to kryptonite.
Nothing wrong with Ronaldos play of football at the moment. Yes he is working on his free-kicks and he has been doing it since a long time. But you can see what will happen once hes got the hang of his technique on free-kicks. E.G the free kick against Portsmouth.
Re: Most goals scored by a midfielder- as far as I know, it was Pires and Scholes who tied the record. Not sure if Lampard has broken it recently, but I HOPE not, not just because I can't stand the guy, but also because he's the most over-rated player in the game!!