Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal hailed his captain Wayne Rooney’s goalscoring exploits for the club and praised his achievement of surpassing Denis Law and becoming United’s second highest goalscorer.
United break duck with win over Swans
Anthony Martial opened the scoring for United two minutes into the second half but his opener was cancelled out by Gylfi Sigurdsson’s header in the 70th minute. Fortunately for van Gaal, his captain stepped up when his team needed him the most and produced a moment of magic in the 77th minute of the game.
Martial picked up the ball from the left flank, dribbled past a few Swansea City players and delivered a driven cross into the box which was met by a dexterous Rooney backheel. The ball swivelled off Rooney’s boots and beat Lukasz Fabianski. The Swans would come inches wide from levelling at the death, when Fabianski, up for a final corner, flashed a header just wide of the near post, much to the relief of Old Trafford, as they won for the first time since November.
The goal gave van Gaal and United their first win in nine games and clearly, the Dutchman was pleased with his captains display. “Passing Denis Law’s scoring record is a fantastic achievement,” the manager said, “for me it was more important for someone to score today.' He later went on to express his hope that it would kick start United's season. Unaware of the feat until after the match, Van Gaal was full of praise for Rooney.
One can only hope that the win against Swansea could be a starting point for United, as van Gaal mentioned in his post-match press conference. The next few fixtures can give them an opportunity to do so since they aren’t very difficult. However, knowing how inconsistent the team have been this season, you can’t tend to take any fixtures for granted.