United will have to try and avert another crisis without Juan Mata, who captained the side against Liverpool but who serves a one-match ban following the first red card of his career in last weekend’s 1-0 Premier League defeat at West Bromwich Albion.
Advertisement
United drew 1-1 with West Ham in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final after Anthony Martial cancelled out Dimitri Payet’s stunning free kick and they remain in the hunt for a place in the semi-finals.
Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini will face no punishment for his clash with Emre Can, while his club’s supporters will not be sanctioned for offensive chants during last Thursday’s Europa League match against Liverpool.
At the end of the day, United are still involved on a number of fronts and Van Gaal was keen to point that out.
“It shall be very hard, I know that, but it is not impossible”.
“I think it is working, because you have to see how we have to work and under which circumstances”, said Van Gaal, in reference to the injury problems which have contributed to his use of 31 players this season.
“When you don’t have many players [because of injuries] and have to play in three competitions, it’s hard to play”.
“The (playing) style is also working”. It is not good enough when you think you have to be a champion. “It was a great game, a great night, a great result”.
“Payet was, more or less, diving”, Van Gaal said.
“We are still in three competitions so we can fight for a lot and it is possible that we are going out (of the Europa League) and then it is very hard situation for everyone, but still we have the chance to win something and you have to believe in that”, he said. But we need to move on, we need to win on Sunday.
Advertisement
The game at Anfield was the first time the two clubs had met in European competition, with Jurgen Klopp’s men winning 2-0. On the other hand, they have won six of their last 10 games played without the 28-year-old. To put that in context, in Ferguson’s final ten seasons in charge, spanning 380 Premier League games, it happened only 15 times, which was no doubt 15 too many for the Scot’s liking’.
