“The circumstances were hard – not only the circumstances, the wind, but also the pressure”, Van Gaal said.
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The head coach said: “It is like a football match – we are coming to the end of the first half and two halves are completely different, and we hope our second half will be better”.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal waves as he leaves the pitch after his side’s 2-0 Premier League defeat against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, central England on December 26, 2015 RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE.
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“I am the one who wants to speak first with the board of Manchester United, with my members of staff, with my players and not always you (the media)”. “We have lost the fourth game, so you have to wait and see”.
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While Chelsea remains two points above the relegation zone – and 13 points from fourth place – Watford is behind United only on goal difference in seventh place.
In the last month United have slipped out of the Premier League’s top four and been eliminated from the Champions League in the group phase following a 3-2 defeat at German side Wolfsburg. “But I think so”.
“I have said to my players at half-time that we had nothing to lose and then you can cope better with that and you have seen that in the second half, but it was not good enough”.
“It’s more hard because I’m also part of the four matches we have lost and so people are looking at me”, Van Gaal told Sky Sports.
Marko Arnautovic of Stoke City shoots and scores his team’s second goal against Manchester United on Saturday in the Premier League.
He put that down to his players’ fear of failure and conceded that United must somehow find the courage to overcome that if they are to arrest their slide.
It got even worse for United when Bojan’s free kick was blocked and with no defender closing down Arnautovic he thundered a shot past De Gea. “We kept fighting and then we scored”, he told Chelsea’s website of the Watford game.
United was spared further misery before the interval when Arnautovic ran onto Krkic’s throughball but missed the target with his shot.
Van Gaal looked powerless as he clutched his notes while sitting uneasily on the bench next to assistant Ryan Giggs.
It was no surprise that Van Gaal acted at half-time by bringing on Rooney for the ineffective Depay.
Rooney’s first significant contribution came after 20 minutes on the field, cutting the ball back for Fellaini six yards in front of goal.
In the closing minutes, Rooney this time set up Juan Mata but again Butland made the vital save.
Having already beaten Manchester City and Chelsea this season, Hughes was happy to gain another big scalp.
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Stoke is three points behind United, which manager Mark Hughes used to play for.
