United used anger to win – Van Gaal

It was his 238th United goal, taking him past Denis Law into second place in the list of all-time United scorers, and his 188th Premier League goal, putting him in second place behind Alan Shearer (260).

United defeated the struggling Swansea 2-1 courtesy of goals from Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney – ending an eight-game winless run to ensure 2016 started on a winning note after a woeful December.

He was in danger of seeing more points dropped when Swansea, who had won their previous three games against United, equalised through a Gylfi Sigurdsson header with 20 minutes to play.

“Amazing is that you can perform the game plan like we have done in the first half and the second half in a risky style under this pressure”.

“So it’s unusual and they’re angry and want to change the situation”. He’s under a lot of pressure but you can see right from the off he’s not afraid to get at players and use his pace and tricks. It is a risk to play that. It is also the first time Van Gaal has avoided losing to the Welsh club since he took over as manager at the start of last season.

“You can not predict (what effect a win will have)”.

“In Monday’s draw [against Chelsea], that was a game where we had to dig in and we didn’t quite get what we wanted”. Now I have a good hope this is a starting point for more.

“The opponent is also playing in a way that makes it hard to score, with 10 players behind the middle line”. “We were comfortable with the midfield diamond when it was 0-0, but once we went behind, we had to change things, so we put two wingers on to get back into it”.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to prove it with good results in the coming games”.

Modou Barrow – brought off the bench after Swansea went behind – supplied the cross for the Iceland worldwide, and Curtis hailed his players’ second-half display. We all know that.

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