Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal will not be swayed by the Red Devil fans when they start shouting ‘attack, attack, attack’, and is determined to stick with his style of possession based football.
The United faithful lost their patience last weekend against Sunderland, when after United took a corner the ball ended being passed all the way back to David De Gea, who by the way holds the Premiership record of having the most balls passed back to him by his team, which was before last night’s match at Newcastle an astonishing 442 back passes to the goalkeeper.
The negative play led to the crowd shouting “attack, attack, attack”, but the United manager refused to be swayed by the crowd saying: “I agree with the fans that we don’t have to use so much the goalkeeper because I have seen also moments where we can play a higher tempo without interfering with the goalkeeper. But the goalkeeper is also the 11th player for us.
“He can accelerate our game also and sometimes the solution is, via De Gea, to play forward. Of course it is more the English style of playing a match [to attack], but I think the fans have also enjoyed Manchester playing a possession game, so it is always a mix of both.”
While the Dutchman’s style of play may not be what the fans at Old Trafford wants to watch, there have not been any calls for van Gaal to vacate his post as United still cling onto a top four place despite the team having not played that well.
