After Manchester United’s disappointing Premier League defeat to Swansea City, Wayne Rooney is determined to comeback with a victory against Sunderland.
The Reds were beaten 2-1 in south Wales on Saturday, with goals from Ki Sung-yueng and Bafetimbi Gomis cancelling out Ander Herrera’s earlier strike.
And Rooney, who once again was reverted to a deeper role at the Liberty Stadium by Louis van Gaal, conceded that United must be better next time out.
“We need to hit back next week,” the United skipper said.
“There are still a lot of games to go and we have to bounce back from this quickly, go on another good run and try to keep us in a good position to finish in that top four.”
Spanish midfielder Herrera put United ahead with a well-taken strike midway through the first half, but the hosts restored parity when Ki prodded home two minutes later.
Despite seeing most of the possession after the interval, United went behind after 73 minutes when Jonjo Shelvey’s effort deflected in off the head of Gomis.
And although the visitors dominated proceedings from then on in, Van Gaal’s side were unable to prise an opening in Swansea’s stubborn defence.
“Of course, it is hard to take, certainly, in the second half, I thought we dominated up until they scored and I thought we got a great goal to go 1-0 up,” added Rooney.
“I was really disappointed in the way we conceded, coming from a throw-in so soon after we scored.
“We went in at half-time knowing that we could play. In the second half they were struggling to get out but then they hit us with a sucker punch, a shot from 30 yards and a deflected goal.
“These things happen but it was a disappointing day for us.
“If we could have kept hold of the lead until half-time, Swansea would have had to have tried to come out more leaving even more space for us.
“As I said before, I thought we dominated but maybe didn’t test the keeper enough up until they scored, that’s disappointing given the play we had.”
Main image courtesy of Bwin via YouTube, with thanks.
