He came into the squad to substitute for a player from PSV Eindhoven and he only played ten minutes but I said to my colleague “he is a player, he can play”.
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United are fifth in the Premier League, six points adrift of the top four spots and a Champions League qualifying place, but since last season the Europa League winners have been granted a spot in the continent’s elite club competition.
The 6-3 aggregate gave them an overall triumph and through to the round of 16. “I’m always confident for that”, said Dutchman Van Gaal.
“Arsenal is another level…”
“It’s what football’s all about and what this club has been about for so long”.
“It is not normal that you have 14 injured players”, said Van Gaal, after Anthony Martial became the latest to pick up a problem, a tight hamstring, before the Europa League game. But the media makes it bigger than it is. A score of 5-1 sounds easy but it was not. “We did not lose at Sunderland because of the media, that is true”.
However, De Gea has responded well to treatment and van Gaal has now confirmed that he expects his number one to be back between the sticks against Arsenal on Sunday.
“That is more of a challenge but I think the recovery shall go better than ever after winning so well”, the 64-year-old remarked.
“But when you don’t have other players it is hard when you have to change or rotate, so the next muscle injury would be Martial but I don’t think he has a muscle injury, because he is very intelligent and steps down when he is exhausted”.
“Chris is a question mark, but you never know”. Guillermo Varela came in at right-back for his sixth appearance while Joe Riley made his first start at left-back, and the manager had reason to be delighted with all three of his youngsters.
“Marcus has done very well and we’re getting him to be more focused on the goals now”.
“It’s an impossible situation for the manager and I can’t see a way that Van Gaal can survive beyond this summer”.
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“[Antonio] Valencia is also coming back and [Marouane] Fellaini too – in the month of March, a lot of players are coming back and then we have a strong selection again”.
