“A lot of our guys might never get another chance to get to an FA Cup final”.
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“But getting the early goal, you can see the amount of chances we created after that”.
‘At Bayern Munich it was (Thomas) Muller.
Van Gaal was not keen to talk about Saturday’s opponents Everton and their players, but believes the fact United have reached this juncture shows they have progressed. “I have lots of examples”. My first club was AZ Alkmaar and I was trainer coach of the second team and then I played with five players out of my second team when I took over as first-team coach.
“The FA Cup, for Manchester United, is going to be a big, big event – but for us, it is a huge event”, he said.
“You need always guts to put youngsters in the squad and also in the line-up but, of course, the academy and all the academy coaches have credit for these players, also the scouts who discovered these boys”.
Van Gaal was quick to highlight that youth has always been his focus and compared the United teenager to a number of famous names he has given a chance over the years.
They sit fifth in the Premier League with four matches to play, having crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage before losing to Liverpool in the Europa League and Middlesbrough in the League Cup fourth round. I do my utmost best.
Everton manager Roberto Martinez is also coming under pressure following his team’s tame surrender in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday night.
When asked whether former Under-18 coach Paul McGuinness and Under-21 coach Warren Joyce deserved credit for readying the youngsters for the senior side, Van Gaal replied: “They are not ready, I’m sorry, also Marcus Rashford is not ready”.
“You could see a little bit of that in our play, but I hope you give us a little bit of leeway on that”.
“I think it was a great goal, also because it was my first for Manchester United and at Old Trafford in front of our fans, so I am very happy”, he told MUTV.
Overcoming West Ham in last week’s FA Cup quarter-final replay started a turnaround that continued with back-to-back Premier League wins at home to Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.
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‘But I can not speak about individual players, especially not players at another club.
