Debutant Marcus Rashford helped United overcome an early blow with two key goals in a 5-1 win over Midtjylland in their Europa League round-of-32 return leg on Thursday.
Advertisement
“It is fantastic (for him), but you have to be consistent and we are looking for consistent strikers”, Van Gaal said after the Midtjylland game, slightly puncturing the jubilant mood.
The duo are old friends yet Van Gaal refuses to telephone the former Chelsea boss to nail the rumour that he’s angling for the Old Trafford job.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has asked his players to be “horny” in order to show more passion when they lock horns against FC Midtylland in a Europa League clash here on Friday.
Van Gaal has been under a lot of pressure to deliver results for the team, what with them stumbling from good positions to give points away.
It was certainly not the flawless build-up to the must win European game for Manchester United as they were trailing 2-1 from the first leg.
Louis van Gaal has branded the personal abuse and constant speculation about his job as “an absolute scandal”.
Having acknowledged his failure to justify his price tag in Manchester, Depay reminded supporters of what he can do with an outstanding individual display in a free-flowing United performance, which sealed a 6-3 aggregate triumph. A score of 5-1 sounds easy but it was not. “He stepped down himself and that I like very much”, United’s official website quoted Van Gaal as saying. The only possible replacement for Martial was the Marcus Rashford, who would be playing his first senior debut.
Such is United’s injury situation, United began with a second-choice goalkeeper, two midfielders as center-backs, a 19-year-old full back making his full debut and then Rashford – who hadn’t even started a game for United’s under-21s this season – up front.
“I am very happy for Memphis”, he said. “I didn’t have another option, so Rashford had to play”, the United manager said.
“His brother Dwayne was with him when he came to us”, the club’s secretary, Ron Jamieson, told The Times.
Advertisement
“Chris is a question mark, but you never know”, he added. I hope the fans understand that.
