Van Gaal denied that he had explicitly told the players to abandon his much-discussed philosophy after a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Southampton – in which United managed just one shot on target – but Rooney said it was obvious that the players enjoyed their performance against Derby County in the FA Cup fourth round much more than their league encounter.
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Louis van Gaal is anxious that the storm of speculation surrounding his future is affecting his players’ confidence.
Asked if United could now go all the way and win the trophy for the first time since 2004, Mata added: “Step by step”. Obviously I am happy with the support of Ed Woodward and the Glazer family, because I have worked for clubs who have not supported me and that is hard. However, the Dutchman’s revealed he wants to see out his time at the Theatre of Dreams.
“It was maybe better than we had trained”. It can only be a matter of time before Manchester City supporters rig up some sort of totaliser to poke fun at this new phenomenon, like the one the Stretford End used to have to mock their rivals’ trophyless years. We gave their goal away but at half-time I said that it was a good performance, keep it up and we will win.
Actually the FA Cup is no longer the first two of those things and in this country it has never been referred to as a title.
Derby have conceded as many goals in their last three games in all competitions as they had in the previous 16.
Van Gaal’s relationship with frustrated United fans has grown increasingly strained in recent weeks.
And the 64-year-old remains confident he still has the faith of United’s hierarchy. It is a period of three years. This board is very intelligent to understand that.
Derby head coach Paul Clement, twice an FA Cup victor with Chelsea when assistant coach to Guus Hiddink and then Carlo Ancelotti, could take plenty of positives from his team’s performance and quickly turned his attention to getting the Rams’ Championship promotion challenge back on track.
“When you play for Manchester United there’s pressure on every game, you have to win every game and I think we managed the pressure, we played good football, and now we’re looking forward to the next game on Tuesday in the Premier League”.
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“George’s goal was fantastic – Chris Martin picked him out and he took it really well”.
