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Manchester United 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0: United still a work in progress in spite of huge outlay

Rooney requires more support than he received on Saturday

Tim Rich
Monday 10 August 2015 01:05 BST
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Kyle Walker, left, puts the ball into his own net at Old Trafford
Kyle Walker, left, puts the ball into his own net at Old Trafford

It was the result that mattered and Manchester United, unlike the two London clubs most likely to challenge them for the title, won.

If Louis van Gaal had a hangover from his 64th birthday party on Saturday night, the news from Stamford Bridge and the Emirates Stadium would have eased his mood better than any aspirin.

And yet after two summer transfer windows that have brought 12 major acquisitions and while 15 first-team players have left Old Trafford, it still seemed Van Gaal’s United were a work in progress, particularly the spine of the side.

Perhaps it was the sight of three goalkeepers – David De Gea, Victor Valdes and Anders Lindegaard – watching the 1-0 win over Tottenham from the directors’ box as Sergio Romero made a series of unconvincing clearances.

Perhaps it was the realisation that, after a summer angling for the services of Sergio Ramos, United were employing the admirable Daley Blind as a makeshift centre-half.

Perhaps it was the sound of Van Gaal, who had spent several months last season experimenting with Wayne Rooney as a midfielder, arguing the England captain could lead United’s attack for the majority of this season.

Of the two support strikers on the bench, Adnan Januzaj is being offered on loan while Van Gaal has long considered Javier Hernandez surplus to requirements.

“A forward is not a special item for me,” said Van Gaal. “It is more in the media that they are discussing a striker and our striker is Wayne Rooney.

“If we can buy another striker who has a lot more qualities than our other players, then we buy and we have done that always. But I have said it before – we have Rooney.”

Rooney has led the United attack magnificently on occasions – particularly in 2009-10 and 2011-12 when he scored 26 and 27 league goals respectively. On neither occasion did United win the title and Rooney requires more support than he received on Saturday.

Memphis Depay might provide that. As a debutant he was under less scrutiny than Romero, received less of an ovation than Bastian Schweinsteiger (who seemed well off the pace) and performed less well than defender Matteo Darmian.

“He was too eager, I think,” said Van Gaal. “New players, especially young players, always want to show their qualities and the next match will surely be better for him. It was a new position for him [linking up with Rooney] and we have to wait and see if he can fulfil the demands of the position. He has to learn when he has to go and when he hasn’t.”

The loss of Phil Jones, diagnosed with a thrombosis after a minor calf injury, might trigger a final bid for Ramos. “We go for the best players and it has to be possible,” said Van Gaal, although any deal with Real Madrid would almost certainly involve De Gea exchanging Old Trafford for the Bernabeu – something his girlfriend, the Spanish television presenter Edurne Garcia, has long desired.

In the way that managers do, Van Gaal tried to argue that “the door is not closed on him”, although he must know it is shutting fast. It seems hard to believe De Gea will instantly recover his focus once the transfer window is done.

The noises from Amsterdam, where the Ajax manager, Frank de Boer, is emphasising how expensive the Netherlands international goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen will be looks like a move to drive up the price rather than prevent the sale.

You wondered, too, about the state of Kyle Walker’s head. The Tottenham defender had played at Old Trafford in a 3-0 defeat last season. “Defensively, I was shocking last year,” the 25-year-old admitted. “I had come here with the intention of putting things right.”

Instead, he had tried to take the ball from Rooney as the striker prepared to shoot from close range and put it through his own net. It spoilt a fine performance from Tottenham that was better than their travelling fans might have expected on the journey to Old Trafford. Spurs looked encouragingly sharp at the beginning and the end of the match but football carries no marks for style. As it was for their nearest and not so dearest across the way in Islington, it was the final result that mattered.

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