Van Gaal understands the nature of the game, and the emotion involved and is hoping that his team can replicate least season’s performance, when they won 4-2 at Old Trafford.
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Manchester City sit top of the Premier League, while Manchester United are third and two points behind; Arsenal are sandwiched between the pair in third spot.
“For me, the fans pay for their ticket and they are free to express themselves with how they feel with order and respect”, he said.
“David De Gea has the best view [of the game] and then the central defenders, so I demand of my defenders that they speak. There is a goals difference, a points difference, so they are the favourites I think”, van Gaal was quoted as saying by the Guardian on Friday.
“I’m not surprised by him, no, because we have analysed him and bought him because of our analysis”. If Arsenal fails to win at home against Everton on Saturday as well, Manchester United would go top of the table. However, if Van Gaal decides to play Ander Herrera and Schneiderlin, it would create a much more mobile midfield trio capable of playing energetically.
“We have more young players in our selection than a year ago and we have to develop ourselves”.
Van Gaal will not use this week’s eight-hour round trip to Moscow as an excuse – despite City staying at home to play Sevilla – but there is certainly a feeling that the trip east has given the visitors a slight disadvantage. “And I think also to Manchester City”.
Inconsistencies like that are going to be found more regularly in the Premier League, which is more competitive than the other top European divisions, but it is still disconcerting to see that both United and City (and Arsenal, for that matter) have more defeats than draws in their records.
“You have to ask the fans”.
“We have set our standards high and we know how well we can play. If we do, we could find ourselves above them in the league and the bragging rights would be ours”.
So we return to United to see if they have the form to beat City, assuming they can overcome the European factor. This is what you expect always from big players to score in the big games.
For both City and United – founded, respectively, by a pair of church wardens and a group of railwaymen in the latter part of the 19th century – it was a reminder of the extraordinary reach that they now exert. “Because all the players are exhausted at the end of the season”. The forward appeared to work harder last season, leading Mourinho to compare Hazard favorably with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
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Macari: “It’s the first time in quite a while that the two teams have been close together and the result means not just the pride of Manchester, it means points that can help you go on and win the title”.
