Premier League week 20: Manchester United 2-1 Swansea
Finally Manchester United won a game. It seems to be an eternity and this one was not an easy. Rooney saved the day for the Red Devils after Swansea equalized earlier in the game. Coach van Gaal can breather a little more as he analyses:
ANALYSIS OF THE MATCH: “We’ve started the new year very well. I think we played very risky, very attacking, with three defenders, but we wanted to win and scored two fantastic goals today. That’s the difference. Our [attacking tactics] were because of the quality of the opponent and the shape of the opponent. We always look to a gameplan that suits us more and also that the opponent doesn’t expect. That’s the reason – it’s not that we want to play risky football. Against Chelsea we played with a lot of space behind us and also today. But we have won and the most important thing is we have scored two fantastic goals.”
FIRST HALF v SECOND HALF: “I think the first half was a better half than the second half; the difference is that we scored the goals and everyone is saying the second half is better. We scored two fantastic goals and you only win by scoring goals but, as a team, our performance in the first half was better and we didn’t give any chances away in the first half.”
ON MARTIAL AND ROONEY: “Martial had one goal and one assist but you could say Rooney had the same, as the run he made to the first post was very important for Martial – it gave him space to get the ball and, of course, the cross from Ashley Young was good. Wayne’s goal, with his left foot behind his other foot, was fantastic. I have said to Wayne it is your second match in a row that you are playing very well and scoring goals. It has nothing to do with the fact I left him out – that’s because he has played every game and sometimes he also needs rest.”
ON ROONEY SURPASSING LAW’S UNITED GOALS TALLY: “It’s amazing, and at the age of 30 years. You have to say, of course, now we are playing much more matches but it is still a fantastic achievement. For me, it is more important that he scores now, and he scored today. I hope that it is the fantastic starting point for the team, but also him.”
ON UNITED’S CHARACTER AFTER SWANSEA EQUALISED: “Of course you could see there was a little drop in the team, but they had enough courage to continue and that you have seen. We created chances again and scored the winning goal.”
ON SWANSEA GOALKEEPER FABIANSKI’S 95TH-MINUTE HEADER: “It’s unbelievable when you give four minutes’ stoppage time – it’s a lot, especially when they were wasting time, not us. After our goal, of course they were in a hurry, but then it benefits them – that I don’t understand. We were lucky it was wide of our goal because it was a very good header and he was free.”
ON JONES AND YOUNG SUBSTITUTIONS: “Jones is injured, more or less the same injury as before. Young has played a lot of matches in a row, so he was stiff and had to be changed. It was not voluntary, I changed them because I needed to change. With Herrera, it was because I wanted to waste time, as Swansea did all match.”
