United old boys put the boot in after Champions League exit

The goalless Premier League draw – United’s fourth of the season – means only former United manager Lal Hilditch has a higher percentage of 0-0 draws than Van Gaal.

Manchester United heroes Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand branded the team “average” and “an embarrassment” after they suffered an early exit in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

United crashed out with a 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg, who made club history by reaching the knock-out stages as Group B winners.

Reflecting his views on the same, the Dutchman said that although he can not defend the growing criticism against him, his club performed better than past year, the Guardian reported.

“As a ManUtd player I was embarrassed going from the Champions league to the Europa league”, Ferdinand said on Twitter, “we expected more of ourselves”. But the Wolfsburg loss found Van Gaal under attack from all sides.

“This was a tight group so I am not agreeing with any opinion that this was an easy group”, he said.

United went into the game knowing that they needed a win to qualify for the knockout rounds, and they started strongly, going ahead in the 10th minute through Anthony Martial.

The 22-year-old has repaid Van Gaal’s faith at certain points, including setting up the winning goal in the win over CSKA Moscow.

The TV money has ensured clubs who used to have to sell their star players for financial reasons no longer have to do so, as United discovered when they tried and failed to sign Sadio Mane from Southampton in the summer.

“I think it is a insane match.”, said Van Gaal after the match, “We scored the goals, then they are cancelling [out our] goals”.

Josuha Guilavogui’s own goal gave United hope with eight minutes remaining but Naldo’s second set-piece goal of the night two minutes later sealed the Reds’ fate. “The result is hard to understand”.

United’s next six league games are all against teams in the bottom half of the table, even if that list includes champions Chelsea, while they host third-tier Sheffield United in the FA Cup third round. It is hard for us and we are disappointed.

“Every word I say is wrong”.

“We were not lucky against Wolfsburg”.

“But we have to forget this disappointment quickly”.

“They’re nearly robotic. We talk about tactics and systems, sometimes [you need] a bit of passion, desire, Man United players showing a bit of character”.

“At Man Utd, you need certain characters and they are lacking characters more than anything else”.

Last week, the Argentina defender dislocated his left shoulder after a bad fall in training. Still we had chances, but they have also chances.

“Playing for Manchester United comes with a lot of pressure”, Lingard told Norway’s Viasat Sport.