I thought the young lads did well, to be honest.
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Van Gaal’s side slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth to pile the pressure on the Dutchman as their winless run stretched to five games. “It’s a game that we can look back on with a lot of pride”. I won’t deny that money is involved but we are all footballers at heart and, ideally, we want to go to a club to win trophies and we want to go to a club who play good football.
It sparked something though, with his fired up players earning a victory that will always be remembered by the 11,334 fans packed inside Vitality Stadium. I think he’s handled himself with real dignity throughout the process, and to play the way he did today, with the emotions running through his body, I can’t credit him enough for that. “For us it’s been a brilliant week, but the preparation for this game was hard with the news of Harry Arter and his family”, he said.
Republic of Ireland global Arter was close to tears after being booked after 84 minutes, and was substituted two minutes later before being embraced by his manager Eddie Howe at the full-time whistle. We tried to bounce back and to fall short like we have is doubly disappointing.
And somehow, amid the elation of a second successive huge Barclays Premier League scalp, rapid-rising Howe was still recalling the pain of that defeat in the back of his mind. In those 20 minutes, he attempted just two passes, and completed one of them. I am happy and content and that is really unusual for me.
He added, “Of course I am concerned because we have lost two matches in a row and that is not a usual thing”. United’s worst week was their best. They can find their form, De Gea won’t let in goals like that very often, they get their centre-halves back, Rooney comes back and finds his form, Depay starts looking like a £20m player, and it all looks very different.
“Manchester United are going backwards again and I don’t see that changing because the manager will not change”.
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Fans and neutrals alike could be forgiving for thinking United will qualify through the group stage but the lack of cutting edge in front of goal and subsequent relapse in defense saw the The Reds leave the champions league much earlier than expected. They play really well, they’re dominating the game, 65% possession, more shots…but then they’ve got to score goals to capitalise on the football that they’re playing’. “It is an unbelievable game”.
