LVG: Creating is no issue, we just need an Aguero

Matt Stead

Louis van Gaal insists creating chances is not a problem for his Manchester United side after yet another shutout against West Ham.

United have scored just seven goals in their last 10 games in all competitions after a goalless draw against a battling West Ham side, who themselves could have won at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal has been criticised for his style of play since being appointed manager in the summer of 2014, although United did manage 21 shots on goal on Saturday afternoon, with just one testing visiting keeper Adrian.

The Dutchman pointed to such a high number of chances as proof tht his side are capable of creating enough, but they simply lack a goalscorer.

“The question is would Luis Suarez or Sergio Aguero score if they were here?” Van Gaal told BBC Radio Manchester.

“That is a question mark. You never know. I think they would, though.

“We’ve created enough chances to score, so that was not the problem.

“The most important thing is you dominate, create and you finish. Football is about scoring goals. The first two basic aspects of football we have done,” Van Gaal added.

“When you don’t finish from a metre in front of an empty goal, you cannot say anything more. You have to finish and that’s the only problem we have. We played very well especially in the second half – but you have to finish.

“The goals are coming. That is my strong belief.

“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,” Van Gaal told MUTV.

“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.

“You can train every day on shooting at the goal and you have to know that we are doing that. 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 – only we forgot to score.”

United’s players were booed off at the full-time whistle as West Ham could easily have snatched all three points, hitting the woodwork twice and wasting a great chance when Victor Moses missed when played clean through.

However when Dutchman Van Gaal was asked whether he could understand the fans’ frustrations, he replied: “Yes and no, because they can see that we fought until the end.

“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.

“That’s always difficult but we created a lot of chances. Yes, you have to score from those chances and we didn’t do that. That is our problem in the latest matches.”

Van Gaal defended his tactics, saying his possession-style football had served him well during his successful spells in Spain, Holland and Germany.

“(The booing fans) don’t like the style of play from Manchester United, but everyone knows in advance that all the teams of Louis van Gaal is playing like that,” he added.

“So when you have that question, then I say, okay, in Barcelona or Bayern Munich or AZ we have played like that.”