In an episode of Stick to Football, former Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney shared an anecdote about his time at Manchester United during his time with Dutch great Van Gaal. The reminiscence reveals the unquestionable and strictness with which Van Gaal enforced the rules in his team and how this strictness affected the team's penalty kick order.
Rooney recalled that during Van Gaal's time at United, the penalty takers were not fixed, but were based on the actual performance of the players in the game, especially the penalty strikes. In a pre-season match, United were given a number of penalty kicks, and Rooney, a regular penalty taker, managed to put the ball in the net on his first two attempts. However, in the final pre-season friendly against Sevilla, he unfortunately hit the post and failed to score.
This seemingly minor blunder was of great significance in the eyes of Van Gaal. According to Van Gaal's ironclad rule, once a striker misses a penalty kick, regardless of the nature of the game, he will face a significant move back in the penalty kick order. Therefore, in the first official game of the season, despite the fact that there are still strikers like Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie in the United lineup, Phil Jones, a player who usually plays as a defender, accidentally became the team's first choice for penalties because of this special rule.
