Marcus Rashford, a teenage product of Manchester United’s academy, enjoyed a dream debut by scoring twice in a 5-1 victory over Denmark’s FC Midtjylland at Old Trafford on Thursday that took the Premier League side into the last 16 of the Europa League.
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For one United player it matters more than most, Luke Shaw.
United’s sense of urgency continued at the beginning of the second half and within the first five minutes had two good chances to score. “I don’t think it is very heavy”, he said. “He was there on the bench because he was the natural substitute for Martial”.
“The first impression is that it [the injury] is not heavy”, Van Gaal said.
“I wasn’t a great player, as you know, but when I played for full stadiums I was always at my best”, Van Gaal said ahead. “They might not have been expecting to make the first team so soon, but they have just completed an unbelievable step in their development”.
The defeat put an already severely under pressure Louis van Gaal further to the proverbial wolves, with reports continuing to circulate that Jose Mourinho will be taking charge in the Old Trafford home dugout as of next season.
“We are looking for consistent strikers and there are not so many on this earth, but he gave a brilliant performance”. “Now we believe we can beat them and I’m sure we will go there and do it”. They were well organised but a lot of our players reached a higher level.
“Now you think it’s easy after 5-1, but it was not easy”.
Van Gaal was also pleased to see Depay turn in one of his best performances of the season.
“He can play fantastic so maybe it’s a turning point”.
Speaking about the latest injury blow to Martial, Van Gaal said: “I couldn’t believe it was happening again. I was very, very sad and frustrated because of the game, the result and our away fans, but not because of the media criticising”.
“What is remarkable is he stepped down himself”.
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David de Gea, Wayne Rooney, Matteo Darmian, Marouane Fellaini, Phil Jones, Ashley Young, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, and Luke Shaw, are amongst the names still sidelined. “Happily, both deputies proved more than capable”.
