Van Gaal hails 'fantastic' Rashford after debut double

The Red Devils boss said that while he doesn't want people to jump to early conclusions on the striker, he was delighted with his impact against Midtjylland

Posted Friday, February 26, 2016 by Goal.com

Louis van Gaal spoke of his delight for Marcus Rashford after the 18-year-old marked his Manchester United debut with a brace in the 5-1 Europa League win over FC Midtjylland on Thursday.

Rashford was called into the starting line-up at the last moment following Anthony Martial's hamstring injury in the warm-up and turned the tie on its head with two goals midway through the second half.

And, while tempering expectations of continued such performances from the youngster, Van Gaal said he was very happy with the striker's reaction to his late call-up.

"I have said already a lot of times that is fantastic but you have to be consistent," the Dutchman told a post-match press conference.

"We are looking for consistent strikers and there are not so many on this earth, but he made a great performance I think."

Van Gaal added that he had no hesitation in promoting Rashford to the starting XI despite having other options thanks to his versatile attack line.

He said: "He was the natural substitute of Martial. You see when Cameron Borthwick-Jackson was out I put in Joe Riley because he plays left-full back in the second team against Norwich, when they won 8-0 [sic, 7-0] and he was the best player on the pitch."

"But the youngsters always play the first match no problem, for us it is then the second or third match. That is the learning process."

The 6-3 aggregate victory sends United into Friday's draw for the round of 16, and the manager says the performance was also a source of some satisfaction.

"We played very well, they scored the first time they crossed halfway," he said. "Maybe then some teams lose confidence, but no our spirit was excellent.

"Even after we missed a penalty, we continued with attacking football and the spirit to win. They were well organised but the spirit was there and a lot of players reached a higher level."