Manchester United’s smash-and-grab 1-0 victory at Liverpool will strengthen conviction that they can yet end a hard season as English Premier League champions, manager Louis van Gaal said.
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The Red Devils were not the best team on the day, as van Gaal admitted, but got the job done at Anfield with a much-needed victory against a key rival.
“We have a lot of matches to go”.
“We have played against Newcastle (in a 3-3 draw) and gave away two leads, and now we have done the things we have trained and discussed, so that is the most precious aspect of the game today”. “We lost in a derby against Manchester United so I can’t be very positive at this moment so soon after the game”.
“There were a lot of chances in the first and second half where we created chances, but we could have had more”. It will be three points United need, and three points they can starve Arsenal of.
But Schmeichel told Sky Sports: “I don’t think they can win the title”.
United closed the gap on Arsenal and Leicester after both sides could only draw at the weekend, although third-placed Manchester City and fourth-placed Tottenham picked up maximum points. “Everybody knows about the historic rivalry between the two clubs, and this game was not an exception”, the Spaniard wrote in his weekly blog at Kicca.
De Gea thwarted a number of Liverpool efforts in the second half, underscoring his importance to a United side that has often flattered to deceive this season.
Marouane Fellaini climbed highest inside the area to plant a header against the crossbar, and the ball dropped to Rooney, who lashed home the rebound from close range past a helpless Mignolet.
A report in Tuesday’s edition of SportsMail states that the United players were “shouting and screaming at each other so loudly that the Liverpool players could hear them from their own dressing room”.
I think we did that in the second half.
After a season of criticism for the United skipper, Rooney has now scored five goals in his last four outings, leaving Klopp and his Liverpool side to lament their lack of killer instinct.
Liverpool remain in ninth place and Klopp was left frustrated.
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Defender Smalling believes Rooney has benefited from a break, which has given him added sharpness and extra motivation to prove what he can do. “Creating chances was good, finishing was not, otherwise we would have scored a goal”.
