Arsenal’s Petr Cech saves against Stoke City at Britianna Stadium on Sunday, January 17, 2016.
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Liverpool – still in flux under Klopp and struggling for consistency – had the better of the first-half chances but were made to rue missed opportunities from the likes of Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson.
“The performance wasn’t that important today; all that matters today was the victory”. Asked if he believed United could win the championship, Van Gaal said: “We are seven points behind now”.
Little wonder, then, that Klopp was so downbeat in his post-match press conference.
“You have to see it always in perspective”.
Jurgen Klopp admitted that Liverpool had been punished for being wasteful after their 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester United. Rooney did so to score for a fifth time in his last four games.
Liverpool-born Rooney, who began his career at Everton, said he was going to relish the thought of scoring at Anfield, something he had not done for more than decade.
“This game shall give a big boost to the players, the fans and everyone in the environment of Manchester United”. And for the fans.
“The smallest of all our problems today was our centre-forward”, said the German, whose side are six points below United in ninth place. On a personal note it doesn’t get much better. “Stoke wanted to surprise us and made it very physical from the start and we had to fight”, he told Sky Sports. Thankfully it went in and won us the game. Therefore, Van Gaal’s men were stifled in midfield and exclusively threatened the hosts when Martial ran at defenders from the left flank.
It was United’s only shot on target, but it was enough to give visiting manager Louis van Gaal his fourth win over Liverpool in four games and a first away victory since the 2-1 success at Watford on November 21.
Fellaini, whose contribution had been limited, showed his aerial threat, with Rooney reacting smartly to beat Mignolet and maintain United’s upturn in fortunes despite a relatively mediocre display. We can overcome that so that’s what I’m thinking about.
At the other end, Liverpool were only slightly more threatening, but only really tested United keeper David de Gea with two unsafe efforts from Roberto Firmino and Emre Can in the second half. “Of course it is frustrating”.
According to statistics compilers Opta, Liverpool have averaged 10 shots for every goal scored this season – only bottom club Aston Villa have a worse conversion rate.
For Evertonian Rooney, a first goal at Anfield since 2005 tasted sweet. “He had a few good moments”, Klopp added.
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“We needed to be strong physically and had a great spirit, we fought very hard but couldn’t take our chances”.
