Manchester United’s Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini (C) scores past West Ham United’s Irish goalkeeper Darren Randolph during their FA Cup quarterfinal replay in London Wednesday.
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“I have seen “The Andy Carroll Show” and I think our problem [at Spurs] was the miscommunication of our central defenders”, he told reporters. “I hope we improve because this game is very important for us, it’s the last chance for a title, very important for the players, the club, the manager and the fans”.
But a trophy is fantastic, and especially the FA Cup, because Manchester United have not won it for a lot of years.
If Van Gaal wishes to ease Rooney back gently Villa would seem to present the ideal opportunity.
“It is not what we wanted of course, but we gave our best”, said West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, whose team lost for the first time in 17 home games.
Mourinho has been largely tipped to take over from Van Gaal next season, as the Dutchman has not been performing as per expectations.
Van Gaal added, however, that talk comparing Rashford to former Old Trafford hero Cristiano Ronaldo was premature.
‘At Manchester United, you have to get results, ‘ he said.
Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and most recently Timothy Fosu-Mensah have all come to major prominence this season, while van Gaal has handed United debuts to as many as 14 players from the youth ranks over the last two years.
“When you have to line up with a different team every week because of injuries, it’s hard to make a consistent team building process”.
The United manager was given the chance to address speculation that he will leave the club in the summer at Friday’s prematch news conference, but he refused to respond.
Much-maligned all season and in grave danger of missing out on Champions League qualification after a drubbing at Tottenham Hotspur, United returned to the capital to produce one of its most vibrant displays of a poor campaign. We have a couple of good games and then a bad one sets us back.
“There is always that possibility, (that the season could fizzle out) but at the end of the day we are not in a situation in the league that we have nothing to play for”.
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Rashford, who struck in the 2-1 midweek cup victory at West Ham, has scored six goals in his first 11 appearances for United, while it took Ronaldo 40 matches to reach the same total.
