Van Gaal hits back: ‘Just write what you like’

Daniel Storey

Louis van Gaal responded angrily to questions about his job after his Manchester United side drew 1-1 with Chelsea.

Jesse Lingard’s goal looked to have earned United a first win over Chelsea since October 2012, but Costa capitalised on Daley Blind’s stoppage-time error to tuck in his seventh goal in nine games.

Jose Mourinho has been repeatedly linked with succeeding Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and the visitors’ Dutch boss would have been disappointed to see the lead lost. The Dutchman reacted angrily when those links were mentioned after the game.

“Why do the club have to deny when you’re inventing stories? I can say you are getting the sack tomorrow,” Van Gaal said. “What about your wife? Your children?

“It was not a boring match. For the third time in a row, it was sparkling. So I hope to get the support of the media this week.

“You write what you like. Maybe you remember the [difficult] first years of Fergie. You have to study the stats. You must do your research.

“It is deep frustration for me because we were the better team. Again, we did not win and we had the chances but we did not win.

“I think we played a superb game until the last quarter,” Van Gaal continued. “We did not keep the ball and we did not play the attack in the way I think we have to do. We were unlucky that we got the goal against us, it was unbelievable. We did not reward ourselves.

“It is deep frustration for me because we were the better team. Again, we did not win and we had the chances but we did not win.

“When your aim is to be third, second or first then you need to win because the gap is already big and the gap is now bigger than before and that is not good.

“I know that we have to play a very nasty away duel and match against Chelsea. Of course, I shall say to my players that it was a fantastic performance until the last quarter, I have said that already, but we have to reward ourselves because it is not the first time this has overcome us.”

Actually, we did write what we liked. We called it 16 Conclusions.