MANCHESTER, England (AP) – Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal cast doubt on his team’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League after a 2-1 loss at relegation-threatened Sunderland in the Premier League, placing the Dutchman under fresh scrutiny on Saturday.
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With the Premier League’s top four sides playing each other on Sunday, United had the chance to make up ground on their rivals in the weekend’s early kick-off at the Stadium of Light.
The Red Devils’ fading hopes of securing Champions League football have led to suggestions the club hierarchy has entered talks with Mourinho but Van Gaal said he would not reach out to the man who worked under him at Barcelona.
Van Gaal admitted: “Yes, it was a very disappointing afternoon”. We didn’t have control in the second half. But because they don’t deliver, you’re disappointed and frustrated. “It is not a question of being let down because the players wanted to deliver but because they don’t deliver today you are disappointed and frustrated but we are working together and pulling at the same string.”Injury to Matteo Darmian: “It is unbelievable”.
“We weren’t aggressive enough and it’s cost us”, says Wayne Rooney. “We’ll just take every game as it comes, knuckle down and hopefully keep picking points up”.
Diego Costa, wearing a mask to protect a broken nose, Pedro Rodriguez and Willian all found the net inside the first 17 minutes, with Pedro adding a second goal before substitute Bertrand Traore completed the rout.
The Black Cats felt that they should have had a penalty 25 minutes in, when Khazri’s effort from 20 yards out looked to have struck the hands of Morgan Schneiderlin, only for referee Andre Marriner to wave away the appeals.
“But you will always be compared to your opponents in aggression, and their hunger and aggression was higher than ours”.
“No doubt it will be tough against Arsenal, we know the players they’ve got are world class but although we lost 5-2 when we played them last time we did show that we can hurt them”, Vardy said.
“We could cope with that aggression, we had our positional game and we scored a fantastic goal, but in the second half, Sunderland were even more aggressive”.
“It’s a big disappointment”.
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“I think after this match that is the best route but it is not easy because a lot of good teams are in this event”, he said of the Europa League.
