Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is not a man to be easily swayed by the press.
And after the Everton game at the weekend LvG launched another staunch eulogy of his captain Wayne Rooney.
England’s record goal scorer has come in for major criticism this season after another sluggish start to the campaign.
Rooney has only scored a couple of goals in the league (6 in all competitions) and questions have been asked about whether at 29, and with so much football played in his career, that he is in terminal decline.
But LvG had ample praise for his captain after his first competitive goal at Goodison since 2007.
“He is an example for everybody: his fellow players, players from other clubs and also for the manager,”
And the Manchester United manager explained that Rooney does some of the less obvious things brilliantly as well as just getting his name on the scoresheet.
“He is always running in behind at the right moment,” he said. “That is more important.”
Rooney is finding some form
We think that Louis still finding exactly the right formation for this side.
But players like Martial and Memphis can only improve Rooney’s game when they all click.
We think that with the pace of those two either side of him, the Liverpudlian would score a bag full of goals.
As yet that formation hasn’t been tried as Juan Mata has usually played on the right with Martial at number 9.
But we may see it on Wednesday as Martial had a blinder on the left against Everton and Memphis was rested.
