Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is keeping his options open ahead of their opening Champions League clash against Benfica on Wednesday evening (Benfica 3/1, United 10/11, draw 5/2).

The Red Devils are looking to go one stage further in this year’s competition after finishing runners-up to Barcelona last season with a 3-1 defeat at Wembley.

They will go to the Stadium of Light in great heart after picking up maximum points from their first four matches of the Premier League season.

The Scottish tactician normally rotates his squad for European matches and will doubtless bring in a few players who have yet to start a league game this term and he feels that it is an essential tactic given the workload on his star players.

“The season starts when the Champions League comes around because then you are into games all the time,” he said. “We have the game tomorrow (Wednesday), Chelsea on Sunday, Leeds United next Tuesday, Stoke away the following Saturday, so obviously the squad will be used.”

United have blown away all in their path so far this campaign, scoring 18 goals and conceding just three en route to the top of the table (United evens Premier League outright).

And, while the likes of Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs, Park Ji-sung and Dimitar Berbatov may well get a run out in Portugal, Fergie has hinted that he would be quite happy to stick with the core of the team that has served him so well in the Premier League.

“I have not decided about tomorrow yet but it wouldn’t worry me to play the team that has been doing well,” he added.