Manchester United’s goal drought continued with a scoreless draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday but manager Louis van Gaal brushed off criticism that his squad lacks firepower.
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The modern United are accustomed to playing with only one centre-forward and one of the questions for Van Gaal, preparing for his team’s Champions League assignment against CSKA Moscow, was whether Rooney had done enough to justify being that man. His reply, emphatically, was that Rooney is still a mandatory first-team pick.
“I can not say every week, we have to win these kind of matches”.
“Wayne Rooney is a fantastic player so expectation is much higher than another player in another club, but you have to also give players time to come back in a certain shape and that is what we are doing and I have confidence in this player but he gives also more than only scoring goals”.
“Now we are hopefully making history, but it takes time”.
Van Gaal’s side were unable to find the net against their London opponents, and indeed, only mustered one shot on target during the course of the match. I don’t think so.
Manchester United’s regular match-going fans are, by and large, a patient bunch.
“I thought we bossed the second half, and in the first half he didn’t get a lot of crosses, so it’s very hard for him to have an influence on the game”. Spanish duo of Juan Mata and Ander Herera will be the attacking midfielders alongside Anthony Martial, who will play as a left winger.
“We don’t know yet”.
David Gill insists Manchester United are moving in the “right direction” under Louis van Gaal.
“He can play in three positions in his eyes and that is left, striker and no.10”.
Rooney wasn’t the only United player guilty of failing to make the most of an opportunity in front of goal.
The player has endured a frustrating time since moving to Manchester United from PSV Eindhoven earlier this summer and has not featured for the club in the Premier League since their 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on October 4.
“I am always thinking of the benefit to the team, not player”, he said. “When I see the characters I don’t think they doubt about that quality”.
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That would mean only a unusual set of results in December’s concluding games could deny the Red Devils a place among the last 16, and even that is only a worst-case scenario at this stage because a draw elsewhere in the meantime would suit them down to the ground. Evra joined Juventus a year after Ferguson retired and has enjoyed a good spell in Serie A. However, Evra admits that the legendary Scotsman advised him to do his badges as he saw a great manager in him one day.
