Louis van Gaal reckons his side could have scored more over Shrewsbury Town
Manchester United comfortably progressed to the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup following a 3-0 win over League One side Shrewsbury Town on Monday night and Louis van Gaal was pleased with his side’s professional performance.
Here are the key points from the manager’s post-match reaction.
Louis van Gaal looked quite satisfied with the way his team put the grip on the game .
“I am satisfied. I have to say that the first 70 minutes we were controlling the game and won every second ball and played very good. We kept the ball also and scored goals – we could have scored more I think. After the 70 minutes, with 10 men when Will Keane was injured, it was more difficult, but I have seen phases where we kept the ball very easily, so I was very pleased with the performance of the players.”
Van Gaal appreciated the efforts of the players on the field and was delighted on capitalising with a free kick.
“I was very happy for the players to get the two first-half goals because they were so committed to win. We had a lot of luck with the goal from Chris Smalling, but the second was fantastic that we could score out of a free-kick – we have learned that from Midtjylland. We have seen that Midtjylland was taking the free-kicks this way and before the match we asked the referees in Denmark if they allowed that and they said ‘yeah, we have to allow it.’ I think it is offside, but okay, they are admitting it is not. In my opinion it is in the rules that you cannot disturb the views of the goalkeeper, but then you are having referees that are saying ‘no, it is not like that’. So, we applied it and it was a goal – not bad!”
The Manchester United manager, who has come under fire this season, hopes to make it to the Champions league and cited the upcoming Europa League game against Midtjylland as vital to that end.
“Yes, of course [it is a big game against Midtjylland], it is our chance to qualify [for the Champions League]. We have to win a lot of games then, but still it is a chance to qualify and that is why it is so important. We have to play continuously, so we don’t have any rest and you have to recover. We take things day-by-day, which is always the case in sport because you can win or lose.”
But despite the win, the concern over injuries and fatigue started to creep into the squad with home stretch into the season yet to be played.
“It is unbelievable because in addition to the substitutes I have taken Cameron Borthwick-Jackson off because he was injured. Jesse Lingard was also struggling at the end. I changed Juan Mata and Anthony Martial to give them rest and then the substitutes are more or less again injured, so it is unbelievable – it is the programme I think. I don’t know about David De Gea, it is not so heavy but we have to wait and see when we can start him again.”, he told club’s website.
