‘Anger’ driving Manchester United players' response
After an eight-game winless run, matching their worst for a quarter of a century, United finally secured a first home success since November 7 to climb to fifth in the Premier League.
Having stopped the rot after four straight defeats against Chelsea last Monday night, albeit with a fifth goalless draw in eight home matches, United went one better, fired by more than just enhanced belief.
“It is also because they are very angry that we have lost so many games in a row,” said the Dutchman.
“They are also not used to that, I’m not used to that, losing four matches in a row. Never, and I have been in this profession for 25 years. So it’s unusual and they are angry also and want to change the situation.
“That is also what Juan Mata is saying in the programme. We shall do our utmost best, fight to the end and he has done that.”
Mata was part of an improved collective effort but the real plaudits belonged to his attacking accomplices Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Ashley Young.
Young was the star performer on the right flank, while Martial and Rooney scored in the same game for the first time.
Rooney’s winner 13 minutes from the end, superbly flicked in from behind his body with the inside of his left foot from Martial’s low cross, was his first league goal since October and was enough to take him past Denis Law and to within 11 of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record as United’s leading scorer with 249 goals, as well as placing him second, on 188 goals, behind Alan Shearer in the Premier League’s all-time list.
“I liked him also against Chelsea, that’s why I said after the game that he had played two fantastic games in a row,” added van Gaal, who has retained the support of United’s board throughout the poor run and whose position now looks a lot more secure than it did just over a week ago, when Rooney was dropped and United slumped to a miserable defeat at Stoke City.
“He does everything we expect from him as a captain, but also as a player. I hope that it can give a boost to him, because the goal was fantastic.
“There was not so much space and still he ran to the first post and did it this way, so it was fantastic and I am very happy for him.”
Rooney is not back to his best but this was another step forward for the 30-year-old, who benefited from playing in the most advanced attacking a role in a team set up by van Gaal to be more positive.
“Always at home we are playing in a more attacking way, to please the fans but also because that is also the culture of Manchester United. But you cannot always do that,” van Gaal said.
“I shall think that now the pressure is lowering, the performance shall be better every week.
“But that also depends on whether or not we score goals.”
For a while it looked as though United’s problems in front of goal, which had brought them their lowest ever scoring tally in the first half of a Premier League season, would persist, as they failed to take advantage of Young’s endeavours before the break.
But two minutes into the second half Young crossed again and this time Martial powerfully headed in his eighth goal of the season.
United failed to kill the game, though, and after Andre Ayew headed against a post, Gylfi Sigurdsson glanced in the equaliser with 20 minutes to go.
With Swansea substitute Modou Barrow running riot, the visitors sensed a possible fourth successive win over United to improve their survival chances under caretaker-manager Alan Curtis.
But just when United and van Gaal needed Rooney, he delivered and the suggestion that things might be turning United’s way was confirmed in injury time when Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski came up for a corner and with the last touch of the game sent a header only inches wide.
De Gea 7; Jones 6 (Darmian ht, 6), Smalling 7, Blind 7; Schneiderlin 7; Young 9 (McNair 78), Herrera 7 (Carrick 90), Schweinsteiger 7, Martial 8; Mata 7; Rooney 8.
Romero, Depay, Fellaini, Pereira.
Fabianski 7; Rangel 5, Fernandez 6, Williams 6, Taylor 5; Cork 6, Britton 6 (Barrow 62, 8), Ki 6; Routledge 6 (Montero 82), Sigurdsson 8, Ayew 7 (Gomis 82).
Nordfeldt, Amat, Grimes, Naughton.
Jonathan Moss 7
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