• Premier League

Rooney: We'll fight for the shirt

ESPN staff
March 9, 2014
Manchester United manager David Moyes believes the attitude of his players has changed for the better

Wayne Rooney believes Manchester United's 3-0 Premier League win against West Brom shows David Moyes' side are ready to "fight for the shirt" after a disappointing season.

United's win at the Hawthorns lifted them up to sixth in the table, and came on the back of a 2-0 defeat against Olympiakos in the Champions League.

However Rooney, who recently committed his future to the club with a new five-year, £300,000-a-week deal, said there is not much room left for mistakes if United want to end the season on a high.

"We were hurt after the Olympiakos game, and we needed to go out and show everyone that we are a good team," Rooney told BT Sport. "We'll fight for the shirt, and we'll fight for a place in the team, and I think that showed.

"We played with a great energy, we were exciting and we always looked a threat, so I think we deserved the three-goal win. And it could have been more.

"It is a confidence-booster. We've got Liverpool and Olympiakos next, where we're two goals behind [after the first leg], followed by West Ham and Manchester City. They're all big games. It's a good challenge and it's down to us as players to take that challenge on and show everyone we're a good team that means business."

Michael Carrick echoed Rooney's comments, insisting it was important United bounced back from the loss against Olympiakos.

"It was an important day for us, we had to bounce back," Carrick told the club's official website. "It feels like such a long time since the last game [against Olympiakos] before the international matches, so we had to perform and really show that we are a good team.

"I thought we scored at crucial times in the game to really take control of it. It's been frustrating this season because, at times, performance-wise we have controlled matches and haven't come away with the results we wanted. You strive for the performances and want the results to follow, today it did.

"We looked really dangerous going forward, we had really good penetration through the pitch and caused them problems all afternoon. We looked exciting going forward."

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