After Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa, with Marcus Rashford scoring the only goal, Louis van Gaal revealed that he had almost rested the striker for the game.

With an important game against Crystal Palace on Wednesday, and an even more important game against Everton on Saturday, Van Gaal has confirmed that Rashford hasn’t trained this week in order to keep him fresh.

I changed him after 70 minutes, I believe, and that is also to give him a little bit of rest. He didn’t train the day after and also the day after that he didn’t train.

I want to keep him fresh because he is in the momentum of scoring and that is very important for him but also for the team. That is why I don’t rotate him.