Sport

Let’s stick together: Manchester United’s Robin van Persie believes Rooney pairing can fire Reds to glory

By Marios Papaloizou

Manchester United striker Robin van Persie believes that the key to success for the Premier League champions is his partnership with in-form England star Wayne Rooney.

Rooney was suspended for the Reds’ 1-0 defeat to Newcastle on Saturday meaning that Javier Hernandez was drafted in to link up with van Persie.

However, both van Persie and Rooney are available for tomorrow night’s Champions League tie with Shakhtar Donetsk and the Dutchman believes that their partnership will help United eradicate their woeful form.

“With a player of Wayne’s calibre, we can go from strength to strength, and we can become better; even better than we are now,” van Persie told UEFA’s website.

“I think we’ve been playing really well together, we’ve been setting up goals for each other and scoring, which is what I want. One game he will score a couple, the next game I will score a couple.

“What I enjoy most is the interaction together, that we both want to play together.

“We both realise that we are better off playing together, because we are stronger when we are playing together, as a partnership. That’s the main thing in any partnership.”

While it was van Persie who often stole the headlines last season this campaign has seen a resurgent Rooney in blistering form for the champions.

However, for van Persie it is all about team work rather than individual accolades and glory.

“You have to have a certain partnership when you’re playing with the number 9 and number 10, the main striker and the second striker,” he said.

“A left-back and a left winger need to have a partnership; the midfielders need to have a partnership; the two centre-backs, together with both full-backs, are the same.

 “I think it’s very important that you want to work together and you try to feed the ball in to each other, and make each other stronger.

“You are always stronger, in any sport, in life, when you are doing stuff together. So that makes me really happy.”

Image courtesy of #5 magazine via YouTubue , with thanks

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