But the former Everton forward, who has hit five goals in all competitions for United this season, returns to Merseyside having failed to score away from home in the Premier League since the 2-1 victory at Arsenal last November. Performing against Lithuania is one thing, meanwhile, but Manchester United are the kind of team the best players thrive against.
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Barca were subject of a whopping bid from Old Trafford, with a deal totalling £240million lined up by Ed Woodward. They have had very few convincing performances this season, yet with 16 points from 8 matches they have to be given credit for getting the results.
In fact, Rooney’s last away goal anywhere in the Premier League came 11 months ago.
“If a luxury player is a player who scores and assists and has good stats, then I’m happy to be a luxury player”.
As United prepare to take on Rooney’s boyhood club, manager Louis van Gaal has hailed the English worldwide.
Paddy McNair is absent with an abdominal injury while Ashley Young is also struggling with a calf problem. “In the last match against Arsenal”.
REUTERS Louis van Gaal has challenged Wayne Rooney to improve on a poor goalscoring record.
As ever though, Van Gaal was measured in his praise.
Manchester United were off to a good start to the 2015/16 Premier League campaign, but suffered humiliating 3-0 loss against arch-rivals Arsenal, which resulted in the Red Devils slipping down to the third spot on the league table.
“I am not interested who is scoring the goals, the team has to score and we have scored three times as a team, and we could have scored five times I think”.
“We are always evaluating ourselves and we can not accept that”, van Gaal told reporters. “He’s scored for us in the Champions League”.
“We started playing like our normal selves and for 20 minutes we created a big amount of opportunities and if we could have scored a goal in that period it would have been a different game”.
“You can not manage it with your players and that is what you have to do as a manager, but all your players are flying out [on global duty]. I don’t see all the players that my colleague can select, so I don’t have any opinion”.
“It has been an terrible two weeks”, the United manager said ahead of Saturday’s game at Everton. “It’s easy to say certain players are luxuries, especially when you’ve lost a game”.
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“What can I say about the Netherlands?”
