In desperate need of a lift following their Champions League exit in mid-week, Manchester United visit Bournemouth in the Premier League today in the grip of a selection crisis. I can say that in advance but nobody hears me because they don’t want to hear.
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Van Gaal admitted he is “concerned” by United’s poor results but said he will draw on his vast experience to inspire a rapid turnaround, starting at home to Norwich next Saturday. And you have to win, because otherwise it is always more hard.
“Then another set play and then you are behind and it is very hard to have a revival. We fought for the win, but with ten men at the end [after injuries] we couldn’t do more than what we have done”.
“The facts are this – we are out of the group stage and, yes, I am very sorry”.
However, while United’s defence was decidedly inexperienced, their attack was largely unaltered by injuries, and should’ve easily picked apart Bournemouth’s back four far more than it did.
“I think the attitude of the players, I like the attitude”, he said.
Van Gaal blamed the threat of Bournemouth striker Josh King for that.
“We are doing that, but in the outside world I think it’s more of a problem than in our inside world”.
“In the first half we dominated, in the second we didn’t any more”. Of course I have already spoken but it takes a long time.
If you had said when Liverpool won the title in 1990 that they would go for 25 years without winning it again you would have been laughed at, but that is what has happened. “But still we had the chances also in the second half”.
“We really didn’t play well in the game”, said City manager Manuel Pellegrini, who blamed the lacklustre performance on a comedown after the team finished top of its Champions League group in midweek. “When the players want to perform in this way, I have always confidence”.
“But we can beat them, just as we could have beaten Wolfsburg”.
Playing their first match since the departure of Garry Monk, the manager who left on Wednesday after a miserable run of form in which they had claimed just one win in 11 league matches, Swansea produced a battling performance worthy of at least a point.
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It’s rare that we see trolling quite this intense – neither the fans nor the players have been spared here.
