On the day Manchester United showed they still have the ability to come from behind and turn losing situations into winning ones at Old Trafford, the executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, has spoken for the first time about the club's activity, or lack of it, in the summer transfer window – explaining that the perceived failure to land Cesc Fábregas had to be conducted in public because of how Barcelona operate, and claiming United dealt with the Wayne Rooney situation in "absolutely the right way".

Woodward, talking to the fanzine United We Stand, said: "With Fábregas that was an approach specific to the selling club. They have an ownership structure that means there has to be debate before a player is sold. It was disappointing that we didn't sign more players, but I always knew it was going to be a tough window. We didn't want to impose a plan on the new manager that had come from the old manager … and we knew we had a truncated window. The early view was that we needed a central midfielder and a left-back, but David also wanted to spend time with the squad. There wasn't a long list he wanted – it was a unique window.

"The Rooney situation was another unique one. It was important that we made our position very clear. I am delighted he is still wearing red … He is irreplaceable and phenomenal to watch."

Rooney scored a 78th-minute equaliser to set United on the path to a 3-2 victory against Stoke, Javier Hernández supplying the winning goal two minutes later. "We had to go for it," said Moyes, after making three attacking substitutions in the second half. "We ended up with three centre-forwards on the pitch and they all scored, so that was quite pleasing."