United had 21 attempts at West Ham United’s goal at Old Trafford but only one of those was on target as the Reds again frustrated the home fans at the “Theatre of Dreams”.
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Louis van Gaal praised his side’s attacking display against West Ham United but said they “forgot to score goals” after a fourth 0-0 draw in their last six home matches on Saturday.
Manchester United now will have a rest day tomorrow before flying out to Germany on Monday ahead of their must-win Champions League tie against Wolfsburg. van Gaal says that he hopes United will find their scoring touch in that game as they need to score to survive.
“Also, we have to be more composed in that situation – especially when you miss chances three metres in front of the goal”.
They have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last nine league games – the longest current streak in the top flight.
The inclusion of Marouane Fellaini in place of Rooney gave a different dimension to United’s attack and the Belgium worldwide was heavily involved as van Gaal’s side looked for the early goal which would have eased the pressure.
Van Gaal has already said that he wants two more pacy wingers, despite adding Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial to his attacking corps in the summer.
West Ham will still be satisfied with the point that they collected against United though, which extends their fine away record. We need to put in at least a seven-out-of-10 performance every game and we are not doing that.
“We’ve created enough chances to score, so that was not the problem”.
With West Ham hitting the same post twice in quick succession, once when Chris Smalling and Mauro Zarate challenged for the loose ball after De Gea spilled a cross, the next time when Reid was unlucky with a header from a corner, there was more goalmouth incident in the first half hour than this crowd has seen in whole games of late.
Fellaini, Juan Mata, Schweinsteiger, Anthony Martial, and Jesse Lingard all squandered chances for United, and the final whistle was greeted by boos. “We have to finish better than we did today”.
But that won’t be United’s biggest worry.
The Dutchman’s team has come in for criticism from sections of the support for a perceived lack of adventure in its play.
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The boardroom belief is that there is no widespread dissatisfaction with Van Gaal among United fans.
