Van Gaal: Rashford can handle media glare

Two goals and an assist from 18-year-old debutant Marcus Rashford sank an Arsenal side boasting of the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.

The incident blew up on social media and was probably only overshadowed by teenage debutant Marcus Rashford’s match-winning brace but van Gaal was quick to play it down in his pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Watford.

Wilkins warned against falling into the trap of “putting this young man under too much pressure too soon”, but fellow studio guest Iwan Roberts has been impressed by Rashford’s fearlessness.

Now Rashford’s name is on everyone’s lips and his surprise emergence couldn’t have come at a better time for Louis van Gaal.

Apart from the attention away from Old Trafford and United’s Carrington training complex the Reds boss is confident Rashford can cope not getting carried away with being in the spotlight.

In the build-up to the United game, Wenger resorted to moaning about players who are “tapped up to go somewhere else” – reinforcing the manager’s failure to hold onto talent such as Cesc Fabregas.

“He is a very modest guy so I don’t think that shall be a problem”, Van Gaal said.

Van Gaal also spoke about his theatrical dive to the ground when remonstrating with the fourth official during the 3-2 win over Arsenal, reiterating his stance that should not have acted in that way out of respect for the refereeing team.

“You can see him in the second team – he was handy with the ball, his dribble was fast and he was also playing on the right and left side in the second team”.

“But if Leicester or Tottenham win the league after he said they didn’t need any players then I don’t see how he can keep his job”.

What goes in favour of Rashford genuinely being able to make an impact for the remainder of the season, is that all of his goals have been first time finishes, showing a raw ability of finishing chances.

“I give every match my opinion about the match to my players, so I help them to answer your questions”.

“As an Arsenal fan, I’m thinking: ‘Can you show me you can be champions?’ and today they didn’t reassure me on anything”.

And he says that was why he did not push to buy another senior striker in January.

“Everyone knew when they saw the team-sheet that we have a very young team”. He reminds me a bit of Anthony (Martial), the way that he started, scoring against Liverpool and against Southampton.