• Premier League

Van Gaal: No qualms over Rooney red card

Wayne Rooney will miss games against Everton and Chelsea after being sent off on Saturday © Getty Images

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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal had no qualms with referee Lee Mason for sending Wayne Rooney off in his side's 2-1 victory against West Ham, but "could imagine" why his striker kicked out at Stewart Downing.

Van Gaal recorded his second win as United manager thanks to goals from Rooney and Robin van Persie. However, the day before the 10th anniversary of his United debut, Rooney blotted his copybook with a reckless lunge on Downing in the 59th minute and was shown a red card for violent conduct.

Allardyce: Linesman dropped a b******

• West Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes his side were made to rue missed chances in their defeat at Old Trafford - but wasn't exactly pleased with linesman Andrew Garrett.
• Allardyce was left fuming after Garrison raised a flag for offside when Kevin Nolan stabbed in Carl Jenkinson's 88th-minute cross.
• "He dropped a massive b******," Allardyce said. "If the linesman can see his [Nolan's] head is offside he is a superhuman being - a superhuman with X-ray vision.
• "It was onside for me, but poor finishing and sloppy defending cost us today. We had enough chances but we fluffed them. We blew it."

"In the second half the red card of Wayne changed everything," Van Gaal said. "Wayne is always coming to me, maybe you don't want to hear it, but you do know in football you make professional fouls. Today I have seen it five or six times and Wayne has done it also.

"Wayne did it [the foul] too unfriendly, that's maybe his biggest mistake. I've seen professional fouls without a red or yellow card [today] and that is strange. He wanted to do that [bring Downing down]. But you can't change it."

Rooney will now miss United's fixtures against Everton, West Brom and Chelsea.

"It will be a great miss, as he played very well and I was very pleased with him - he scored the goal,'' said Van Gaal, who last week said Rooney was the only player in his XI to be an automatic selection.

United's defence has been criticised recently following heavy defeats at Leicester and MK Dons, but Van Gaal was impressed with the response; the Dutchman had to delve into United's youth side to pick 19-year-old Patrick McNair, who looked solid on his first start for the club.

"You cannot defend it easily because they were playing long balls so you have to fight, fight and then fight again, so I'm very pleased with the attitude of my players because they had to fight again," Van Gaal said.

"I said to them at the end that when you do that you will always be rewarded. We have three central defenders injured. You can make a solution by playing Daley Blind in the centre of defence, that's easy to do because he has played there also.

"I don't like two left [footed] central defenders or two right [footed] central defenders. Because of that we are looking in the youth academy. When you see what we have done you have done it very well. I think we played a very good first half, with very attacking and effective football. We were very dominant and didn't give so many chances away."

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