Wayne Rooney has scored a last-minute penalty to win the 3rd round FA Cup tie against Sheffield United.
It hasn’t been a great season for Manchester United and Louis Van Gaal so far. While results have been with them, although not in recent weeks, their performances have been lazy, languid and lackluster. They play a possession based, defense first game. Van Gaal’s philosophy that he can’t stop talking about is boring. Thankfully for the Dutchman, he has some world-class players to bail him out.
Anthony Martial has bailed out Van Gaal repeatedly this year with some wonderful goals. On Saturday, it was the turn of Memphis Depay and Wayne Rooney. Depay was dropped to the bench against Sheffield United, but midway through a truly terrible second half, Van Gaal turned to his £30 million winger to turn the game around. And boy, did he do that.
Depay, with his back to goal, flicked the ball past the opposing full back, drove towards the penalty box, cut inside the onrushing Dean Hammond, went down and won the penalty. It was a wonderful piece of play from the winger, and Wayne Rooney, cool as a cucumber, stepped and slammed the ball home, sending the keeper the wrong way.
It was a life-saving goal for a game that was truly lifeless. Manchester United looked truly awful, passing the ball sideways and backwards for the whole 90 minutes, while hardly creating anything against a team two divisions below them. Thankfully, they have players like Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay and Wayne Rooney to make things out of nothing.