Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has highlighted the effectiveness of Patrick Dorgu and another key first-team Red Devils player against Aston Villa on Sunday evening.
Wayne Rooney appeared on BBC’s Match of the Day 2 and the 40-year-old iconic former Manchester United striker reacted to the Red Devils’ 2-1 defeat at Villa Park.
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Morgan Rogers was the difference-maker between United and Aston Villa at the weekend, with the 23-year-old winger netting a stunning brace in the match.
The England international broke the deadlock with a superb curling strike past Senne Lammens in the 45th minute before Matheus Cunha netted the equaliser for United.
United and Villa went into half-time with a 1-1 scoreline on the board, but Morgan Rogers beat Senne Lammens for the second time in the 57th minute of the tie.
What Wayne Rooney noticed from Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw in Man Utd’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa
Despite Manchester United’s loss to Aston Villa in Sunday’s Premier League match, Rooney praised the intensity that the Red Devils showed in the first half at Villa Park.
“Yeah, I thought Manchester United today were really aggressive and brave in going man to man and made it really difficult for Aston Villa to play out and there are some examples I wanna show you [Mark Chapman] here which [is where] they got real success from it,” he said on Match of the Day 2.
“Yeah, this is further up the pitch, but they were man-to-man all of the pitch and it made it really difficult for Aston Villa to play out.”
Rooney then singled out Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw for how the United duo showcased the Red Devils’ ‘aggressive’ and ‘brave’ desire to close down Villa.
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“If you see here, man to man at the back, no problem, three [vs] three,” he continued.
“But what they tried to do was force Aston Villa down their right-hand side and they wanted the ball to go to [Ezri] Konsa and eventually to [Matty] Cash and then they were going to be aggressive and try to win the ball back. And they done that.
“They caused Aston Villa problems, especially [in] the first half, they caused them big problems.
“You see here, it goes to Matty Cash, now Dorgu goes in, Luke Shaw is brave and goes in and wins the ball, they don’t win the second ball, but now they’ve got bodies around the ball to be aggressive and get to the man.
“They give a free-kick away here, but it’s no problem, and this was constant throughout the first half.”
Wayne Rooney shows why Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw’s hard work paid off for Man Utd in the Aston Villa result
Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw’s intensity for United caused Villa to lose their first-half lead only three minutes into injury time at Villa Park on Sunday evening.
According to Rooney, Shaw maintained his role of applying pressure and Dorgu did the same with Matty Cash, which forced the Villa right-back to make a mistake.
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Dorgu was able to tackle the ball from Cash and forced it into the path of Matheus Cunha, who beat Emiliano Martinez from a tight angle with a superb strike.
“Now you see the body positions of the Man Utd players, they want it to go back, to go down Aston Villa’s right-hand side again, which that happened, they force into Konsa again, now it goes into Matty Cash, Dorgu’s there, Luke Shaw is in behind,” Rooney added.
“Man to man, no problem. Now, what Matty Cash does wrong is he takes an extra touch and that allows Dorgu to get in tight to him.
“He [Dorgu] wins the ball back, now Cunha is in a very good position and it’s a great finish and they get their rewards for being aggressive.”
The seventh-place Red Devils will host 11th-place Newcastle at Old Trafford on Boxing Day after United’s 2-1 Premier League defeat to Aston Villa.
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