Whites to play it cagey at Old Trafford

A long list of casualties has seriously undermined the Reds' ambitions on three fronts, but when the two sides clash at Old Trafford on Saturday, Sam Allardyce admits he will be taking a cautious approach.

Although they are wounded, United still have enough danger men to cause problems to a Bolton side desperately in need of a boost after three confidence-draining defeats.

Writing in his weekly Zoo magazine column, the Bolton boss admitted that it would be foolhardy if he threw caution to the wind against the derby rivals.

"At the moment, there are quite a few Premiership teams - ourselves included - who are stuck in a bad run," he said.

"The reason is simple: lack of strength in depth when suspensions and injuries kick in.

"That's why it only takes a couple of crocks and you can very quickly be looking at five games without a win, when you might have been expecting four wins out of five.

"It's a fine line at this stage of the season. In these situations, the best thing is to play for a draw. You can't change too much in training at this time of year, so you have to stick to the tactical approach - concentrating on the opposition's strengths, showing your players how to stop them scoring and hoping you might nick a set-piece. Your team will be low on confidence, so the key thing is to get something - stop the run of defeats and wait for your top players to come back.

"At Bolton, we're still confident that we'll turn it round and finish the season in the top six.

"We've still got to go to Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea, but the rest of our games are all winnable.

"We've had two runs this season where we've won five on the trot, so we need to repeat that."

Two former Wanderers managers are out of work after leaving their posts yesterday. Bruce Rioch quit Danish club, Odense, for personal reasons, while Roy McFarland parted company with Chesterfield who are fifth bottom of League One.