Louis van Gaal has reiterated his belief that Manchester United are “on schedule” in their race for a Champions League knockout round spot, per the club’s official website.
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Regarding his new deal, he said: “I felt in that moment that to extend my contract was the best thing to do”.
Jesse Lingard continued to impress from the left wing since his introduction to the first-team this season and should have scored his second goal of the season with a lob attempt late on when the game was still 1-0. I know a few people think our positional game is boring but I think it is a way to disorganise the opponent’s organisation.
The Red Devils fought until the very end against a well-organised Watford side as they took all three points to go top of the table. Depay, Lingard and Mata interchanged positions beautifully in the first half and at times Watford’s defenders were uncertain about who they were supposed to be marking. Capoue gave the ball away in midfield, allowing Depay to play it on for Lingard on the counter-attack.
After his early goal, Memphis too drifted in and out of the game.
Immediately after the goal, van Gaal flicked the switch, and United saw out the 2-1 win with the cautious possession game they had played for 87 minutes, and seemingly for most of this season. We lost there in the first week and now we want to get the three points that would take us closer to the next stage, and to live another special European night in the Theatre of Dreams. It was an injection, the equaliser.
“I was convinced Luke would have a very good season and because of that I didn’t buy a second player for left-back”.
Louis van Gaal could be without 10 first-team players for Manchester United’s Champions League tie with PSV Eindhoven.
Depay, who joined United from PSV in a reported £25 million ($37.9 million, 35.7 million euros) deal in June, could face renewed competition for a starting role after Van Gaal revealed that Wayne Rooney (illness) and Anthony Martial (foot) could return to the team.
“We have a lot of injuries now so we have to adapt to that”. Antonio Valencia has been operated on. Jones and Herrera are not available for Wednesday.
Jones suffered a twisted ankle, while Herrera has a hamstring problem and both will miss Wednesday’s Champions League game against PSV Eindhoven.
“Rooney is ill, and that is a matter of days, not weeks”, Van Gaal added.
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“I’m happy to get the help of everyone and happy to play on Saturday to show that I can be important”. He is at home.
