Roo-m for improvement

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has admitted he is not happy with his form despite closing in on his best-ever scoring return.

Rooney's double in Sunday's 4-0 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford took his goal tally to 31, just three fewer than his personal best haul from two seasons ago. In addition, the 26-year-old will equal the feat of legendary winger George Best the next time he finds the net for United, which will be his 179th Red Devils goal.

But while it would appear everything in Rooney's garden is rosy, the striker told a different story: "It was nice to score two goals but I didn't think my performance was good enough. The rest of my play wasn't great. I am disappointed with that and I will be working hard to put it right."

Rooney's form will be a worry to whoever ends up replacing Fabio Capello as England manager, considering the striker will still be a central figure at Euro 2012 even though he will miss the group games against France and Sweden due to suspension.

United appear to have found a way of coping with any lapses.

And, at this stage of the season, results are more important than performances anyway, offering Rooney an additional incentive to match Best's scoring feats.

"It would be great to equal that record and hopefully surpass it," he said. "I would be proud of that achievement, but I can't really look at it just at the minute.

"If it happens then great but it's the points that are important at this time of the year and if I can score the goals that get those points then I'll be pleased."

On the back of that surprise defeat at Wigan and with their lead at the top cut to two points by a Manchester City side that has bounced back from their horror show at Arsenal by scoring 10 times in two matches, United could not have had picked better opponents than Villa.

Although the ailing Midlands outfit were a sporadic threat, they failed to apply any meaningful pressure on the home goal, and Rooney said: Obviously we were disappointed with our performance against Wigan but we had a chance to get that out of our system... It was a big game for us and we deserved to win."