Although the Red Devils’ inability to score goals and play attacking football hasn’t cost them as yet in the Premier League, their draw on Wednesday means they are now in an extremely precarious position in UEFA Champions League Group B, most likely needing a win in their final game against Wolfsburg away to go through. Just six goals in the last eight games is a sorry return for a club of United’s stature and captain Wayne Rooney – who has managed just two goals in his last ten games for the club – admitted they needed to be more “ruthless” in taking the chances that fall their way.
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“We knew if he came on the game would be more direct. I thought it was positive for us”, Cocu said. “It is not a outcome of good or bad performances. In the first half, if we get a goal it’s a completely different game: we can control the game and they have to come out and attack, but it didn’t happen”.
United boss Van Gaal concurred with Rooney, admitting he was anxious about the team’s goal rate.
To mark the decade since Best’s death, United fans turned the flashlights on their phones and held them aloft in memory of the Northern Irishman, who wore seven during one of the club’s most successful periods in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We won at home against them, so why can’t we win away?” Vardy has now scored in his last 10 league games, and a goal against United will break the record for scoring in consecutive league matches – a record he currently shares with former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri believes Anthony Martial will rediscover his best form for Manchester United.
Asked if he agreed with Rooney’s comments about ruthlessness, Van Gaal said: “Yes, of course, because we are playing football to win – that is what he is saying, and I am saying that always”.
“You have to fight and perform well in every game, also in the whole game”.
“It was a gameplan to have speed on the right side against Blind, and to create chances from that side with the pace of Luciano”, Cocu said. “I feel we showed a lack of composure which put ourselves under pressure a lot of times”.
“It will be very hard because Wolfsburg are the best team in our group to play against, but it is possible”.
“That is not the kind of atmosphere to go and get and expect to get even a point, my boys gave their best shot”, he acknowledged.
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As a result, PSV sat back and frustrated them before coming into the game in the second half. At the final whistle, PSV players rejoiced and embraced, in stark contrast to their opposition, who looked stony faced as they tried to digest the ramifications of the result as they slowly walked down the tunnel.
