He said: “I could not change anything, if it was just one player then I can take measure but it was more than half of my team who were not doing what we had agreed in our game plan”.
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“We have prepared ourselves in that way, to play more compact but not to lose our aggression”. “I am very happy with him”.
Van Gaal’s post-Emirates inquest will have to wait until after the worldwide break, though, much to his obvious frustration. “I don’t know why it happened”, Van Gaal said. “I put the question already at half-time and also after the match because normally I say the things how I see it”.
United now have to go into the global break lying in third position knowing that a win would have kept them top of the pile.
“It is something we have to cope with and we respect that challenge but it means you really have to monitor and get the best out of the players you have available”. I have not seen that, when you are top of the league [as United were at the beginning of the weekend].
Michael Carrick, who was paired alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger in the centre of the park for United, admitted the performance wasn’t good enough.
Mata scored the penalty, teed up Smalling’s 53rd-minute victor with an improvised flick and proved a constant source of invention, but Van Gaal was reluctant to join in with praise of the Spaniard’s display.
Theo Walcott & Co. ran out 3-0 winners over United on Sunday.
Coquelin continued: “We are getting stronger against the big teams”. But we [took it in] perspective and focused on what it is important.
“We have an important month of October ahead, with games that will demand our best level of performance, and we have to be ready for them”, Mata added.
Sanchez has scored six goals in his last three games in all competitions, including a hat-trick in a 5-2 win against Leicester City at King Power Stadium last month.
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Hi everyone. It’s not easy to write today and to find words of encouragement after a game like this, but we have to carry on.
