Louis van Gaal believes Wayne Rooney can still score 25 times for Manchester United this season despite the captain nearing 1,000 minutes since his last Premier League goal.
Rooney has found the net four times for the club this season, though these have been in the Champions League and Capital One Cup. During the club’s summer tour of the US, Van Gaal stated Rooney would return at least 25 goals for the campaign because the 29-year-old was being restored to centre-forward.
Asked if he believed Rooney could still reach the mark, the manager said: “He has already scored four goals.” When it was put to the Dutchman that his captain has played 954 minutes in the league since he scored against Aston Villa on 4 April, Van Gaal said: “I don’t think that is an issue for him, for me or for the club, so he shall score also in the Premier League. That I am convinced of. And you shall see it.”
Rooney has also scored twice for England this season and Van Gaal is unsure why the league drought is so long. “As a player and as a manager you can never know,” he said. “Also he has been a little bit unlucky. I can give you an example – against Newcastle he scored and it was not offside but it was cancelled. You cannot manage the referee. The referee is independent.”
Despite the pre-season decision to move Rooney into the No9 position the manager hinted he may revert the Liverpudlian to a No10 berth because of Anthony Martial’s emergence.
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