Van Gaal rues missed chances

He said: “When you are not finishing the chances – and they were very easy chances in front of the goal or in front of the goalkeeper – then it is very hard to win a game because the goals are counting, not the chances”.

“You have to force the luck, but we didn’t do that because we didn’t score”.

The last spot-kick Rooney took was successfully converted to make him England’s all-time leading scorer, but his struggles at club level continued last night as Boro stopper Tomas Mejias saved from him and Ashley Young while worldwide colleague Michael Carrick also fired over.

“In the goal was a goalkeeper; and he was very quick and he gambled also”, the Dutchman said.

While City drew a blank at Old Trafford in the Manchester derby on Sunday, they reverted to type against Palace as they scored five goals or more for the third time this month. That might just about work, but the Champions League games are needed in order to keep standards higher than they were last season, and the FA Cup is now the only chance to play youngsters without it being too much of a risk.

“I am so disappointed”. Football – what only matters is a goal.

“We are used to handling multiple major events in the city on one evening – we’ve had up to two hundred thousand people at a time in the city on one day”. I have to admit that I’m very proud of that because it’s not an easy game against Middlesbrough.

Boro boss Aitor Karanka thought his side’s victory was merited and he was pleased to end up a victor in a penalty shoot-out after being on the wrong end of a 14-13 epic against Liverpool last season.

That next game comes at Crystal Palace on Saturday, with Van Gaal adamant that United’s recent run of troubles in front of goal will have no adverse effect on his players.

“I’m really satisfied tonight because this team never played together since I’m here – young players, new players, players who didn’t play for a long time because of injuries – and they did really well”. We trained yesterday on penalties, but it is like that.

“The main thing is the performance, and the performance today against Man United, a big team, it was unbelievable”.