The 31-goal winger and part-time forward is on course to overtake George Best's 1968 best-ever wide man's haul of 32 goals.

And with 22 Premiership strikes he is even inching his way up the list of Old Trafford's best league goalscorers.

Such Red scoring greats as Jack Rowley (30 league goals in 1952), Bobby Charlton (29 in 1959), Denis Law (30 in 1964) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (25 in 2003) are in his sights.

There is even a book open on whether he can topple Dennis Viollet as United's all-time number one league scorer.

Viollet's record-setting campaign came in 1960 when all his 32 strikes that term were in the first division.

But amid all the accolades raining down on the Portuguese international for his phenomenal tally, and the speculation about record-breaking totals, there is an underlying concern that an over-reliance on the young star it could trip the Reds up in their title and Champions League assault.

There is a lack of support coming from the midfield department to bolster his efforts.

Carlos Tevez (13) and Wayne Rooney (11) have done their bit as front men to provide a reasonable back up to on-fire Ronaldo's count.

But there has been precious little help towards bearing the weight of United's goal threat from the engine room.

Ronaldo's hot form has papered over the cracks.

The 23-year-old has rescued United in recent weeks with his goal against Lyon in the Champions League at Old Trafford that enabled the Reds to edge the two-legged knockout against the French side.

Last Saturday, against a team which had been thrashed 6-1 by
Chelsea days earlier, Ronaldo went through torture in front of goal.

He was losing the individual battle with Rams keeper Roy Carroll until his persistence paid off and his late winner saw United scrape home at Pride Park.

On another day Sir Alex Ferguson could have been paying the price for not getting any goal contribution from his midfield.

This term's assistance from the engine room players has been paltry.

Top scorer behind Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez is Nani with three goals from 22 starts.

Brazilian newcomer Anderson has not broken his duck yet and there are five players from that unit who have only managed one goal each!

It is a weak looking effort of just ten goals from eight players in a joint campaign of 143 matches.

In last season's title-winning term a seven-man midfield group hit 31 goals, with Paul Scholes (7) leading the way closely followed by Giggs and Carrick on six.

In the 2003 championship campaign the tallies from van Nistelrooy, Ole Solskjaer and Diego Forlan were supplemented in all competitions by a four-man engine room contribution of 51 strikes by David Beckham, Juan Veron, Giggs and Scholes.

In the 1999 Treble year the Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham quartet up front was amply backed by 37 goals from Scholes, Beckham, Giggs, Butt and Keane.

In effect this term's midfield assistance has only really seen six title points won as a result of goals from that department.

Nani's winner in the 1-0 victory over Spurs in August and Owen Hargreaves and Ji-sung Park's goal apiece at Fulham at the beginning of the month have been the only pivotal goalscoring moments from the unit.

Incredibly not a single Red midfielder has scored in Europe this campaign.