United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has reportedly spoken to a number of the club’s players about their feelings towards Van Gaal’s methods, and their responses have been far from convincing.
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I can only say what I have seen.
“We knew they are under pressure if you keep the organisation in your team, they will be nervous”, said Koeman, who went on to describe reports in Holland that he had asked Guus Hiddink to put in a good word for him about the Chelsea job as “bull***t”.
The Dutchman believes he faces a struggle to turn things around and to win the fans back over. I had the fear already in advance with every change I did as we became weaker in the defence because [Marouane] Fellaini is a tall guy, [Matteo] Darmian is also a defender and he was out. “That is my job and it is not an easy job at the moment”.
“I wanted to win this game and that’s why I changed Borthwick-Jackson for Januzaj”, said Van Gaal, whose side enjoyed a smash-and-grab 1-0 win at Liverpool last week despite a similarly listless display.
“We played very good”, he said.
Valdes signed an 18-month contract with United after moving to Old Trafford a year ago but fell out with Van Gaal over the summer. With Shane together in the last 10-15 minutes they did a great job but it is not fair to mention one player. “It’s not [up] to me to answer this question”. “I don’t think we have entertained the fans, so they can be very angry”.
Van Gaal was also unsure why United couldn’t build on their recent positive results. We’re fans as well as directors and we don’t want booing, we want cheering.
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“That’s the question”, he said. “So our opponent makes it more hard, but still I had the impression we could have done it better”.
