Louis van Gaal: Manchester United must improve to win Champions League

Chris Smalling was the matchwinner as Manchester United recovered from going a goal behind after just four minutes to beat Wolfsburg 2-1 in their second group game in the Champions League.

Juan Mata’s first-half penalty and Chris Smalling’s 53rd-minute goal gave United their first victory in Group B.

Van Gaal meanwhile, has said he is a different type of manager compared to Wenger and his Old Trafford predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson. “And the way he scored a goal was outstanding, especially for a defender, and especially for him because he is not doing that so much. To win the final is not enough for the team to show they have quality, it’s also necessary that luck be with them“, stressed the Dutch coach.

But the nature of their victory on Wednesday was somewhat unconvincing and the performance drew a few criticism from Van Gaal.

“All teams now have three points, and we’ve seen that United can be beaten”.

We should be hearing from Van Gaal at 5pm.

Andreas Pereira was naturally delighted to sample his first taste of UEFA Champions League football during Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Wolfsburg and the young Brazilian is hungry for more opportunities in Europe’s premier competition.

“That is remarkable because, keeping the ball in our possession, we have done that very good in the last five or six matches”.

Pereira’s Champions League debut came about this week as well, when the youngster was brought on to replace winger Memphis Depay in the second half and was impressive.

Mata had teed up Smalling’s 53rd-minute victor with a delightful improvised flick and proved a constant source of invention.

The England worldwide has developed into one of the club’s most important players under Van Gaal but the Dutch boss insists the only person who deserves credit for that is the player himself.

Despite Mata’s decisiveness in the game, Van Gaal was adamant that he is capable of even better and would not praise him highly in his post-match press conference.

Manager Louis van Gaal believes tiredness is Manchester United’s greatest enemy as they prepare to face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

“We don’t finish it and it was a lucky penalty I think”, he told BT Sport.

“Then we score and after that it was suffering”. However, I am staying optimistic that we can build on tonight’s fine performance.