Van Gaal, speaking to BT Sport after the game, said: “It is the law of Murphy I think”, referring to how bad United’s luck was on the night as they lost goalkeeper David de Gea in the warm up before the game started. “When you have a list of 13 injured players and a few minutes before the game we add another player to the list, then it is hard to cope”.
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The Portuguese coach has been relentlessly linked with the managerial job at Old Trafford following the speculation surrounding Louis van Gaal’s future at the club.
“The fans can criticise”, said the United manager, who has failed to mastermind a win in 18 of their past 27 matches. In the second half, we don’t win any duels, any second balls… We know what to expect but it’s going to be tough and Thursday’s game proves that if you’re not at your best then you can slip up, so we need to be ready for that.
“I have to make another line-up every week more or less so that isn’t contributing to much more confidence”.
“And in the second-half I have to say that Midtjylland was winning every ball”. The performance and the result are not good enough and it has got to get a lot better.
He said, “We have to wait for a scan, then maybe we can say more, but it was a big surprise”.
Van Gaal had stated following the Premier League defeat to Sunderland on Saturday that Europa League glory was now the easiest way of ensuring Champions League qualification for next season.
Bouncing back with a win against League One Shrewsbury, followed by another in leg two of the European tie three days later at Old Trafford sufficient to send them through would provide a significant boost.
Columnists at the Manchester Evening News described the defeat as a “new low” and called for Van Gaal to be sacked, while many irate fans took to Twitter. But nevertheless after 10 or 15 minutes we controlled the match, we scored a goal, but we also gave a goal away one minute before half-time.
“I have been in the 70s when we got relegated, but even though we got relegated you felt the players were giving 100 percent”. “We have to pick ourselves up and go again – there’s no other way”.
“That’s the only positive, we’ve got another chance to put it right and to go through”, he said.
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And midfielder Carrick, who wore the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney, told MUTV: “I can’t knock the supporters, they were incredible”.
