Liverpool 0 – 1 Manchester United,Louis van Gaal “very happy”

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney broke Thierry Henry’s Premier League record during the 1-0 derby win at Anfield on Sunday.

And Smalling says the United skipper is fired up after Van Gaal dropped him for the Boxing Day clash at Stoke.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, Redknapp believes United could push for the title alongside Arsenal and third-placed Manchester City (poor Leicester) if they can build up momentum in their next two games.

“When the gap is like this, seven points, you can overcome that”.

Since new boss Jurgen Klopp took charge in mid-October, Liverpool have only twice managed back-to-back League wins and it has been suggested that the German will look to bring in plenty of new faces in the summer.

“When we came into the dressing room after the first half, there was some screaming and shouting but of course that is normal because in a derby you can not lose the battle”, he said.

Earlier, Rooney – who made his name playing for Liverpool’s city rival Everton – marked his latest return to Merseyside by scoring the only goal of the game at Anfield. He has got some credit in the bank now.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal praises his side and Wayne Rooney for grinding out a win against Liverpool.

“I hope we can continue winning – that’s why we are here”. Liverpool continued to play with the initiative in the second half with De Gea twice denying Emre Can, once with a brilliant save with the Spain worldwide recovering quickly to prevent Firmino scoring the rebound. “We have seen that but we can do it because we show every week we can do it”. “Maybe we need to be more concentrated, I don’t know, but we need to keep going on to the next game and play well”.

But Goal understands that restrictions have now been reduced around the Carrington training complex, with players arriving to eat at various times rather than as a whole group, after several senior figures raised the issue with Van Gaal during clear-the-air talks during their festive slump. Then we lost Rooney…goal.

After sealing victory against Liverpool, with his second half goal, Rooney said in his post-match interview; “We got the three points we needed”.

Rooney has now scored in each of his last four games for United, something that he had not achieved since March 2012 before this afternoon.