Van Gaal expects Rooney to hit goal trail

Louis van Gaal expects Wayne Rooney to hit the goal trail after the Manchester United striker ended his drought against Everton.

Rooney was closing in on a calendar year of no Premier League away goals and had scored just once in eight league games heading into his return to Goodison Park on Saturday.

But the United captain scored the third goal in a comfortable victory for the Red Devils, with goals from Morgan Schneiderlin and Ander Herrera helping United bounce back from their 3-0 defeat to Arsenal last time out.

Van Gaal, who has staunchly defended his captain on numerous occasions during his struggles this season, believes the 29-year-old will now “score more” after a confidence boost.

“I said a lot in a press conference last Friday, we have to score like a team,” the manager told Sky Sports. “Because of the attention on Wayne I am happy he scored, I believe his last goal here was in 2007. That is crazy but now I think he shall score more.”

On a victory which lifts United back into second, the Dutchman added: “Fantastic. I am very proud of them. The defeat against Arsenal, two weeks and I cannot approach them, then this performance? Fantastic.

“How Everton is playing we analyse and then you choose the best solution, but all the credit goes to the players. You need also a little bit of luck and the goals were fantastic but they were at good moments.

“It is only one match. Also Arsenal is only one match. We don’t have to exaggerate. We have to be more consistent so next week when we win against Manchester City then we can say OK, now we think maybe about title aspirations. But of course we are always having the target of champions. That is of course important in our ambition but it also has to be real. It’s too early to talk about that.”