In the wake of Roy Keane’s criticism of Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, manager Louis van Gaal has insisted Rooney is performing well enough to merit his place in the starting eleven.
Wayne is doing a lot, has a very great contribution in the team. I am satisfied with him.
van Gaal also detailed Rooney’s current position for the Reds, saying:
At this moment, he doesn’t play in the striker’s position, [Anthony] Martial is playing there. But it is possible he shall play other matches there. It depends not always on the quality and shape of the player at the moment, but also the game plan.
However, he refused to go into detail over Keane’s comments. The former United captain, who is now the Republic of Ireland assistant manager, claimed that Rooney was overweight. Furthermore, Keane felt Rooney was wrong to participate in a recent WWE show in Manchester while he was in such poor form for his club. van Gaal insisted on turning his focus to the man of the moment, Jamie Vardy.
Vardy is difficult to defend against. It was like that last season and even more so now. Vardy is like Van Nistelrooy – highly concentrated to make goals and always running in behind. It shall be difficult to stop him but we can do that because we have a lot of clean sheets already.
