WEST Ham and Manchester United go head to head in the Emirates FA Cup sixth round replay tonight. In the first month of the campaign, they beat Arsenal and Liverpool away, but lost to Leicester City and Bournemouth at home.
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“I think we had chances to do that, because Spurs are like that with full-backs who come up, so you need running in deep, and Ashley has done that very well for the under-21s and it was not Marcus’ best game”.
United have provided little evidence in recent months to suggest they can win the FA Cup but exiting the competition would be disastrous for the club and van Gaal’s position at Old Trafford, so everything will surely be put on the line for the win.
Carroll scored a nine-minute hat-trick in a 3-3 draw and Van Gaal has warned his defenders to be on guard against the striker. We know that. Of course we are not going to make our players be afraid of them, no. But respect them. This is the FA Cup quarter final replay and the victor will proceed to the semifinal to play against Everton on April 23. “Everyone knows this is the last chance”.
United manager Van Gaal claimed that the Red Devils represented a bigger challenge than Tottenham as the 20-time English champions will always be the bigger club.
“I have seen the Andy Carroll show [against Arsenal]”, the United manager said.
Bilic’s East London revolution has been spectacular and the club could be even higher up the league had they not suffered a glut of long-term injuries to seven key first team players all at the same time in November.
The Swede is also concerned about Manchester United’s style of play, which has been increasingly criticised under Van Gaal’s reign due to a lack attacking prowess.
“So I hope that we will improve our communication because this is a very important game for us”.
“Because it’s a waste for West Ham, it’s a waste for England, but it’s the biggest waste for him”.
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Taking in the post-mortem of United’s tepid loss, Mata was certainly correct that United “had a good start” and “the [first] half the game was even”.
