Set-piece Secrets Pay Off For Van Gaal

Louis van Gaal admits he is happy with Manchester United's goal return from set-pieces and was delighted to see his team awarded a first penalty of the season during Wednesday's 3-1 win over Burnley at Old Trafford.

The boss has seen the Reds find the net from 11 set-plays this term and most recently against the Clarets, when Chris Smalling's first goal came from a corner. The defender's second came as a result of a well-worked short corner between Wayne Rooney and Angel Di Maria, before Robin van Persie fired home the third from the penalty spot.

Van Gaal praised his players for the way they have executed set-play drills that have been worked on for many hours in training, including spot-kick sessions. Interestingly, it is he who ultimately has the casting vote on who takes the efforts from 12-yards.

"I’m deciding, yes. I have secrets and that kind of set-play we train every week. All the penalty kickers have to take a penalty," he explained exclusively to MUTV. "It’s also good that we train that kind of thing and you can see it because set-plays are a very important part of the game. We are very happy that we received a penalty for the first time.

"We train every day before our games with our set-pieces. We have now scored out of 11 set-plays, a high amount. It's something that we always work on in training."