Van Gaal faces scrutiny after United’s Champions League exit

But, with PSV Eindhoven beating CSKA Moscow 2-1, Louis van Gaal’s United had to win and there was little chance of that.

A picture of the Dutchman sitting in the dug-out with his head in his hands during Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg adorned several back pages, The Times branding United’s exit “Embarrassing, Amateurish, Excruciating”.

“The United whom Ferguson embodied, the combating, assaulting, winning United, disappear”, composed The Times. Manchester United are still challenging for the title in England, but Wednesday saw arguably the most attacking tactics employed by van Gaal and it was still not enough.

“United just look like an average team, really, and with an average team you get average performances”, said Scholes.

The club’s top scorer in Europe is Martial who has scored twice, including a goal against Wolfsburg. A first glance United should have easily cruised through Group B en route to the round of 16, according to ESPN.

United equalized through Anthony Martial and an own goal by Josuha Guilavogui, but the final nail in their coffin was hammered home by Wolfsburg defender Naldo – who headed the ball past De Gea, sending his team into the next round of the Champions League.

“The decisions of the referee – that is not a positive for us”.

Louis van Gaal has been heavily criticised this season for the lack of depth that there is now in the squad especially after the manager spent over £250million, and Ferdinand wasn’t holding back as he said that the team has no pace or power and something needs to be done about it.

“There should be a proven goalscorer there and as we have seen at the start of the season, proven ones have left the club”.

United face a tricky trip to Bournemouth in the Premier League in the late game on Saturday, host Sheffield United in the FA Cup third round next month and begin what could be an arduous Europa League campaign in February.

“They didn’t deserve to qualify”, said BT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand.

At the moment I can not defend myself because we are out of the Champions League.

The irony for a shell-shocked Van Gaal was his team finally found their scoring touch, after two goalless draws in their last three games, but fell apart in defence.

In a double blow, full-back Matteo Darmian was forced off in the first half last night after picking up a hamstring injury and was replaced by 18-year-old Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.

There was no urgency, threat or quality. We’ve got a lot of players in the squad and the manager is giving players a chance, so they can show themselves.