Louis van Gaal ‘will not last the season’ at Manchester United

For the visiting Swans, caretaker manager Alan Curtis rings the changes as he looks to build on the goalless draw at Crystal Palace last time out.

Van Gaal knows he is under pressure to stop more supporter dissatisfaction and prevent the top four breaking away in the coming weeks.

Thankfully for the under-fire Dutchman, Rooney swivelled and beat Lukasz Fabianski with his left foot to convert Martial’s cross seven minutes later.

“We are looking always for solutions in the team”.

“It was a great goal”.

Monday’s 0-0 draw at home to Chelsea alleviated the immediate pressure on Van Gaal, but with December seeing United suffer Champions League elimination and collect just two points from five Premier League games, the Dutchman admits that the final month of 2015 ruined the club’s calendar year.

It would be wrong to suggest everything is rosy at Old Trafford, of course.

Rooney’s form this term may not be fitting of a club hero, but on Saturday he dug his team out of the dirt when it mattered the most.

“How many players have had the chances to score and why they didn’t score?”

“He has played two fantastic games in a row”, said Van Gaal of Rooney, who was dropped for the Boxing Day defeat at Stoke.

“I don’t believe too much in competition”.

“He does everything we expect from him as a captain but also as a player and in what position he plays”.

Van Gaal hopes this win will kick-start United’s season too.

With Jose Mourinho now out of a job and Pep Guardiola leaving Bayern Munich in the summer, talk has shifted to who could be his replacement.

“I have to say all the players do their utmost best and you can see that, but still there is still space for improvement”.

It was Rooney’s first league goal in eight league matches and it was also the first time he and Martial had scored in the same Premier League game.

“Everything is going well until now but I can not say whether he will be back this season”, Van Gaal added.

“The difference was we scored the goals and then everyone is saying the second half is better”.

“When you analyse the matches, we are always capable of playing in our style where we created chances and were the dominating team”.

The United boss said his players had been left “angry” by their failure to win their previous eight matches – the club’s worst run in 26 years.

There was bad news for Van Gaal regarding Phil Jones, who had to be replaced at half-time with an ankle injury, but Ashley Young only came off because he was stiff, his manager said.