Rooney shows he is Manchester United's head and heartbeat
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Despite last summer’s personnel changes and a spate of mid-season injuries, United’s coaching staff have guided the team once again to a menacing position as the season enters its most crucial phase.
Assistant manager Mike Phelan is satisfied with the Reds’ form, but is sticking to the mantra that points mean prizes, continuing this weekend against Wolves…Wolves are at the other end of the table from United - what do you make of this season’s Premier League relegation battle?
It’s fascinating. This time there are as many as eight teams who are all drawing rather than winning. What will be interesting is if one of the teams around the bottom gets a couple of good results against so-called top teams. That will change the pattern. But I think the more teams that are involved in that scrap, the better it is for all of them.
Your former club Burnley are involved – are you rooting for them to stay up?
Of course. They’ve worked very hard over the years to get up into the Premier League and because there’s a group of teams down there fighting for the same points, Burnley are more than capable of holding their own. I think they’ve shown that by getting good results at home, even if they’ve failed to match that away from home. But if they can win three or four more home games that might do the job.What’s your current take on the title race?
No one team has pulled away this year, so it’s difficult to even say it’s down to ourselves and Chelsea, because a lot of teams could finish the season strongly. But it is a race and it’s a battle at times. You’ve got to make sure you’re in it, and then it can swing your way or against you at the last minute. We’ve the experience and tradition of being in these races to draw upon and it will be important that we know how to handle the run-in this season.
After having so many injuries, are you getting a bigger, fresher squad at the right time?
When we had injuries to the defenders we had to play people out of position, and it worked at first, then we had a few problems. It was important to win as many games as we could during that period, but now we look as if we’ve got most of the players back, and hopefully they’ll gel together and we can move forward.
Can having such a strong squad tip the title balance United’s way?
We’ve got plenty of games coming up and we’re going to have to use the whole squad. It’s just getting the selection right at the time, and making sure those who haven’t been playing regularly are ready. That’s an area that is always the hardest – keeping those who aren’t playing at a level where they can come in and do the job. When you get to this stage of the season, those players can prove vital for you and it’s important that they’re ready.
Are you happy with how the team are placed?
We’re showing great signs of improvement from earlier in the season. There’s been a natural, gradual progression throughout the season to get us to where we are now. The players are starting to dictate matches. They’re enjoying themselves, but we have to keep driving the message home that nothing’s done, and we have to keep pushing them in order to get everything out of them right to the end of the season. -
Wayne Rooney heads his first of two goals for Manchester United against Milan at Old Trafford. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images
Rumours of Wayne Rooney struggling for fitness have clearly been greatly exaggerated. Either that or a rest at Molineux last Saturday did him a power of good. He was certainly fit enough to carry the United attack on his own tonight, after his alleged over-exertion on the Wembley turf for England, and anyone keeping even half an eye on events these past couple of months will appreciate that that rendered Manchester United's progress into the Champions League quarter-finals something of a formality.
Rooney was not able to manage the full Nicklas Bendtner and neither could United emulate Arsenal's five goals, yet Milan are not Porto and Rooney's double was thoroughly impressive. The Italians defended with surprising naivety, and missed good chances, but the encouraging news for United, England and anyone else with an interest in goalscorers at the top of their profession was that no one could match Rooney for quality of movement or decisiveness of finish. He settled the tie as early as the 13th minute.
Everything that followed was mere decoration, even if it must be allowed that the way United opened up Milan for Rooney's second, before he went off just after the hour, will have given them every encouragement for the rest of the tournament, as will a notable aggregate scoreline.
Having put themselves in a strong position in Milan, it was disappointing for United to concede a late goal that allowed the Italians hope, but Sir Alex Ferguson's assessment was that if his side scored at home it ought to be enough to guarantee progress. There was some debate among United fans about whether Ferguson would select an attacking line-up or pack the midfield, yet the fact that Dimitar Berbatov was on the bench was misleading. While the Bulgarian has been in decent form, his pairing with Rooney is not necessarily United's best option. Most of the unstoppable performances Rooney has put in this year came up front on his own, and here was another one. The 3-2 win at San Siro – where United had never scored, let alone won – was achieved with a similar formation.
Predictably, Rooney had the first shot of the game, the first couple of shots actually, though Ronaldinho also came close to opening the scoring with a header before United found inspiration from an entirely unexpected source. Gary Neville was in the side for his experience, Ferguson putting a high value on the commodity for big European nights, though having seen him struggle against Matt Jarvis in the 45 minutes he played at Wolves the United support was fearful of what might happen when he was asked to contain Ronaldinho. They need not have worried. Neville got forward and caused Milan problems of his own. He had sent a dipping shot narrowly over the bar and won a commanding header on halfway by the time he sauntered down the right and sent over the cross from which Rooney opened the scoring.
Milan have no excuse for not knowing about Rooney's heading ability after San Siro, so perhaps they assumed he would not be able to leap past Daniele Bonera or to beat Christian Abbiati from 12 yards. Rooney turned a good cross into a great goal with a header from the days when centre-fowards had centre partings. Even more remarkably, for a player with much more to his all-round game who has only recently begun to display the positional sense and timing to make heading an effective part of his repertoire, it was Rooney's seventh consecutive headed goal. Any old-fashioned centre-forward would have been proud of that, particularly as few of them were routine.
While United held only a one-goal lead the tie was theoretically open, but the second half was barely a minute old before Rooney's 30th goal of the season put it to bed. Taking advantage of a sprint down the left by Nani and a perfectly judged pass inside, Rooney reached the ball ahead of Abbiati and pushed it into the net. Game over, with due respect to Park Ji-sung's strike, Darren Fletcher's first European goal and David Beckham's introduction. The sequence of headed goals was over too, though that is hardly important when a scorer is in such imperious form.
While Beckham crossed as well as ever, rolled back the years with a spectacular volley that almost caught Edwin van der Sar off guard and generally looked as if he should have started the game, he no longer has the ability to influence outcomes single-handed.
United and England now have someone else who can do that, although if Beckham seizing a green and gold scarf for a photo-opportunity at the end means his next fight will be against the Glazers, at least his money will come in handy. He may not be Goldenballs any longer, but he can still be a Red Knight.