Rooney’s strike – United’s first shot on target – came after Marouane Fellaini’s header rebounded off the crossbar and the England captain has now scored in four successive games for his club for the first time since March 2012.
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Chris Smalling feels Wayne Rooney being dropped to the bench played a key part in the striker’s recent resurgence for Manchester United.
After scoring a dramatic goal at Anfield, Wayne Rooney told reporters he would cherish his winning goal against United’s bitter rivals.
“I’m very happy for him, but also for Manchester United”.
Rooney has now scored the most amount of Premier League goals for one team as he surpassed Thierry Henry’s record of 175 league goals.
The victory lifted United back up from sixth to fifth place in the table, two points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, while Liverpool remained ninth with 31 points.
Only two weeks ago there was talk that Dutchman Louis van Gaal was going to be sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho but now he has come out and said the club are still in the title race. “We have to continue of course and it’s not so easy, but we showed we can do it – we have shown every week we can do it”. “Today it was important because our competitors lost points and when the gap is like this we can overturn that”.
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp has said that the performance of his boys is short of that which could deliver a top four finish at the end of the league.
In the Manchester Evening News, David de Gea says he is focused on United, despite interest from Real Madrid. In this moment we play not bad.
“To be honest, I don’t care too much about the situations where we tested De Gea, I think more about the situation where we could have had chances but didn’t”. We could be first, second, bottom or second-bottom – it’s a massive game.
“The goal was to defend and we didn’t do it”, he added.
“As long as we have enough players to play, we should not think about this”.
Although Liverpool were the better side for most of the match, Juergen Klopp’s team failed to take their chances. “It is a big step in a good direction and I am very happy”.
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“There were a lot of things but we lost in a derby against Manchester United so I can’t be very positive at this moment so soon after the game”.
