Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United are better than before
After Manchester United’s elimination from the Champions League, manager Louis van Gaal said that “facts” prove United were better than last year. The Dutchman is of the opinion that keeping in mind last season, United have since then reached the group stage, progressed further into the Capital One Cup and now sit fourth in the English Premier League.
United had finished fourth last season, they sit fourth in the table presently as well. Van Gaal brought United back to the Champions League, taking control after the sacking of previous manager David Moyes. Last season United were defeated 4-0 by MK Dons in the second-round of the Capital One Cup and this season they lost to Championship side Middlesbrough in the fourth round.
Justifying the progress United have made, Louis Van Gaal said,
“When you see the facts – we went further in the Capital One Cup, qualified for the Champions League group, we have played all these matches and are still in a very good position in the league.”
“The facts say we are better than last year.”
Not an easy group
Following a 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg, Manchester United failed to make it to the last 16 from the group stages. Van Gaal added: “I cannot defend myself because we are out of the Champions League. I’m very disappointed that we are out of the Champions League.”
Van Gaal also rubbished opinions about the fact that United had an easy group in the Champions League. United were slotted into Group B of the Champions League along with Wolfsburg, PSV Eindhoven and CSKA Moscow. Fans had expected to see United go past the German runners up, the Dutch champions and the Russia runners up respectively.
“This was a tight group so I am not agreeing with any opinion that this was an easy group,” confirmed Van Gaal.
Defensive frailties
Prior to the Wolfsburg game, United had conceded only two goals from nine matches. However, the visit to Wolfsburg hurt their pride as the defence scrambled and Wolfsburg netted three goals.
“It was a crazy match,” said Van Gaal, who also saw Jesse Lingard have a goal disallowed before half-time on Tuesday.
“We didn’t score many goals before and in an away match you score two goals – maybe three but one was cancelled out.
“But twice you give away a goal within two minutes of scoring, that’s difficult to understand when you defend so well normally.”
More injuries
After Tuesday night’s game Manchester United have two more injury worries added to already existing ones. Matteo Darmian suffered an injury during the first half. This saw Van Gaal deploy the 18 year-old Cameron Borthwick-Jackson as his replacment. Chris Smalling also suffered a groin problem in the final 10 minutes of the game. They are both unavailable for Saturday’s Premier League away clash to Bournemouth, says Van Gaal.
