Xavi: ‘Wayne Rooney should vacate striker role, move into midfield’

Always regarded as a “confidence player”, the England record goalscorer has often gone through dips of form throughout his career, but he has come under considerable fire from pundits and even his own fans for his performances so far this season.

Van Gaal is likely to shuffle his pack ahead of the match with Aitor Karanka’s side and could rest a number of first-team players who featured against City. “If they keep learning and progressing like they are, then hopefully they will do what me and Ronaldo did back then”.

In fairness to Rooney, he was not the only one who struggled to make an impact on what was a poor game devoid of risk-taking bravado or entertainment.

Without Sergio Aguero or David Silva, City looked toothless in attack in the 170th Manchester derby.

Shortly after touching down in Manchester following a two-and-a-half-week tour of the United States, Jones felt a tightness in one of his calves.

“Manchester United are going through a transformation from the style Sir Alex Ferguson liked to play”.

“I think he (Van Gaal) is a very experienced manager”.

“I read a lot in the media about teams playing tactical games or mind games and coming for a draw: for me, it’s not the way to do it”, Pellegrini, the City manager, said. “I don’t like to play this way”.

“Unfortunately for the fans it was not a very attractive game”.

“When you play 90 minutes, where you are concentrated and focused like we were, then I am proud”.

“In the first half, it was okay but, in the second half, we were much better”. United had two late chances but overall… “We were unlucky, they were lucky”, Dutchman Van Gaal told the BBC.

Most of those came from the defensive-minded players, and Rojo was very much among them, doing a fine job at left-back of keeping the likes of City forward Kevin De Bruyne at bay.

“I’ve seen on the video that Herrera should have had a penalty, but the referee did not give us the benefit because it was hard to see”.

Hart added: “It’s a performance that’s good to know we have in the locker, though I’d have preferred it if we hadn’t have had to use it”.

“I thought: ‘what the f***?!'” the United defender said. Van Gaal was clear that only his side had tried to win the game.

“I wasn’t surprised because it is typical of Wayne as a man and as father”.