He even offered the theory that traffic could have been to blame for the exodus by scores of supporters before Wayne Rooney’s injury-time penalty victor on Saturday.
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He added: “There are many reasons why someone might leave early”. When I was looking at matches to analyse our opponents, then I would leave the stadium five minutes before.
“You’ve just seen 90 minutes of boring, defensive…I’ve tried to defend this team now for the last two or three weeks, it’s getting more and more hard to do it because every time you come to Old Trafford this is what you see; negative football. But we are in the next round”.
United did not register a shot on target against the League One side until the 69th minute and were booed off at the break.
Van Gaal’s side has now won back-to-back games after an eight-match winless run and will be hoping this is the start of a run that will bring them first FA Cup success since 2004. The fans also have to know that we can’t always play fantastic football and that was the case in former days as well.
“We have to do it [create chances] better than this match of course”, said the United boss.
When asked why he had failed to rectify that problem 18 months into his reign, Van Gaal said: “Because it is the most hard situation in the match”.
“It’s more easy to defend than attack and at the end we got the penalty but it was a deserved penalty”.
Van Gaal refused to respond to the outspoken United legend on the eve of his team’s trip to Newcastle.
“They have also been ironic [with their cheering] but that’s also an expression of the fans and that’s good”. You have to know what they want and how they play.
United’s style of play has come in for criticism since the Dutchman took over.
“I don’t take risks and, because of that, we have a very young bench”.
But Van Gaal refused to be drawn into a war of words and said: “What do I have to do now?”
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The pressure is still on Van Gaal because of the often tiresome and uninspiring performances of his team.
