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But the goals have dried up somewhat since, and the idea that he will definitely bridge the 25-goal gap between himself and Charlton has been put into question because of his positional change.
Rooney started the season as a striker, but Van Gaal moved him back to number 10, then into central midfield and he ended Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over Burnley as a defensive midfielder.
Van Gaal has been heavily criticised for moving Rooney back deeper and deeper, but that does not mean his days are numbered as a centre-forward.
“He is maybe the best striker (I have),” the United manager said.
“It is not that anybody isn’t a good player in my selection. I have to look at where each player can make the biggest contribution.
“It’s the composition, which is more important than the individual player.”
Roy Hodgson indicated this week that Rooney will play up front in the upcoming internationals against Lithuania and Italy.
Van Gaal insists he has no problems with the England manager over his comments and claims he would do the same were he in his shoes.
“In the composition for Mr Hodgson, Rooney is probably giving more contribution to the English team in the striker’s position, then I would put him there too if I was the English manager,” Van Gaal said.
“He (Hodgson) has to compare Rooney with other strikers in his line-up and that is another consideration I have to make.
“I have to choose between (Radamel) Falcao, Robin van Persie and all the other strikers I have, then it is my consideration that is a different way.”
Hodgson will be in the BBC studio at Deepdale on Monday night to watch his captain play against Preston in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
At the other end of the pitch, Van Gaal looks set to start with David de Gea in goal.
It was widely assumed Victor Valdes would play in the FA Cup after he signed on a free transfer, but Van Gaal has stuck with De Gea and that looks set to be the case for a while.
Valdes, who has not played a competitive game since March because of a serious knee injury, will have to make a big impression in the reserves to oust his in-form compatriot if he is to start the next match in the competition, assuming United are not knocked out by their League One opponents.
“(Valdes) has to (prove himself) in the second team,” Van Gaal said.
“When you are out for more than one year, you have to show yourself at a lower level. Like Ashley Young is doing, like Michael Carrick did, it’s always the same, it is normal.”
De Gea won the player of the year award last season and on current form, he looks likely to win the gong again this term.
The Spaniard has put in a series of outstanding displays this year, but Van Gaal refused to reveal whether he thought the 24-year-old is the best in the world.
“I never speak about that because I can never judge other goalkeeper, I can only judge mine,” he said.
“He doesn’t save any points as he is my goalkeeper and his obligation is to hold balls and you are thinking that is an exception for other goalkeepers? It is not like that.”
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Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
Results
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Winner No Riesgo Al Maury, Szczepan Mazur (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner Marwa W’Rsan, Sam Hitchcott, Jaci Wickham.
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Winner Safin Al Reef, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 2,200m
Winner Thulbaseera Al Jasra, Shakir Al Balushi, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
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Winner Autumn Pride, Szczepan Mazur, Helal Al Alawi.
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Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.
Most wanted allegations
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- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
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- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
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Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
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Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)