Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal felt his side were unlucky to come away with just a point against West Ham United at Old Trafford.
As United played out a bore 0-0 draw – their 4th of the season – against the Hammers on Saturday, the Old Trafford faithful wasted no opportunity to express their displeasure with the direction the club is heading towards. Incessant chants of “Attack! Attack! Attack!” were heard throughout the match as Manchester United struggled to break down a well drilled West Ham backline.
It was in fact West Ham which came closest to snatching away all 3 points from United as they struck the woodwork twice in the first half. To compound Van Gaal’s misery, United lost both Morgan Schneiderlin and Paddy McNair to injury in the first half. United now travel to Germany to face Wolfsburg in a must win clash if they are to progress to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
The result leaved United in 4th position in the league table – 3 points behind surprise league leaders Leicester City.
Van Gaal bemoans lack of luck as United fail to score yet again
Speaking to the media after his side’s 0-0 stalemate with West Ham, Louis Van Gaal blamed luck for his side failing to score on the night.
“You can train every day on shooting at the goal and you have to know that we are doing that,” said Van Gaal (as reported by the club’s official website). “We put players in the position to score but you need composure and luck to score. The most important thing is that we are creating and we are dominant. Today, we were dominant and attacking, we were creating chances a only we forgot to score.”
Asked about his assessment of the match in general, Van Gaal, “I think that we played a very good match, it’s only we have to score. You must score out of the kind of chances we created. You need to score, otherwise you cannot win, and it is very frustrating, also for the players because they want to score. We have to finish better than we did today.”
“There was a fantastic team spirit and we were dominant. We created many chances and you can only do that when you are attacking; we attacked much more than our opponents, who were defending in their square of 40 metres. Thata s always difficult but we created a lot of chances. Yes, you have to score from those chances and we didna t do that. That is our problem in the latest matches.”
FT: United 0 West Ham 0. Despite creating some late chances, the Reds can’t find a winner and only take a point. pic.twitter.com/soUl8gGj8F .
a Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 5, 2015
Van Gaal on borrowed time as fan frustration reaches boiling point
Despite being just 3 points off the top of the table, many Manchester United fans have had enough of Louis Van Gaal’s pragmatic approach to the beautiful game. Manchester United have scored the least number of goals (20) of the top 6 sides in the league at the moment.
Fans have been vociferous in their criticism of the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager and the brand of football that he’s brought to Old Trafford. Many feel that the culture of pragmatism inculcated by Van Gaal since his arrival at the club goes against the core ethos of Manchester United football club.
Anything less than a win against Wolfsburg will send United tumbling out of the Champions League and heap more pressure on Louis Van Gaal.