Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has admitted that the players deserve as much criticism as manager Louis van Gaal.
The 30-year-old scored United’s first with a wonderful curler against Derby in the FA Cup on Friday night to ease the pressure on van Gaal, who was booed off last weekend at Old Trafford as United lost to Southampton in the Premier League.
And Rooney believes he and his team-mates have to take as much responsibility for recent results and performances as van Gaal has.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said:
It’s unfair to say it’s the manager – we’re on the pitch.
The players have to take a lot of responsibility for performances and results. We have to stand up and take criticism when it’s there.
We want to win, of course we always want to win, and we’re trying. Even when you’re giving 100%, it doesn’t always come off, and thankfully against Derby it has.
The United captain also credited van Gaal for giving the team more freedom to play their game against the Rams, in contrast to the rigidity shown by the side against Southampton and for most parts of the current season:
It was obviously a better performance than last week’s game. But the manager gave us a lot of freedom to go and play, and you can see the difference in the team.
You can see we were enjoying it, scoring some good goals, and thoroughly deserved to win, so hopefully we can put in another performance like this on Tuesday and take this into the game against Stoke.
Rooney, who has scored six in his last six games, is also closing in on Sir Bobby Charlton’s long-standing record as United’s record goalscorer, and he needs just seven more goals to equal the feat.
And when asked about the record, he gave a measured response:
I’m well aware. Like the England record, when it was getting closer, it was coming up every week, so I’m sure it will now.
But it’s great to be mentioned alongside Sir Bobby’s record and, hopefully, before the end of the season I can pass that and kick on from there.
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