Louis van Gaal praise for Leicester City

Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal admitted that his side played with fear during their goalless draw with PSV Eindhoven last night which left their Champions League participation in the balance.

PSV, who are third on seven points, will qualify if United fail to win and they beat bottom-placed CSKA Moscow at home in their final game.

And with other senior members failing to chop in, Van Gaal is now concerned by his sides lack of goals.

He said in a news conference: “Of course I am anxious but I know also that goals are coming and going”.

“It’s not a effect of good or bad performances”.

“I can imagine that fans are saying that this is ridiculous, they have difficulties to score, but that is a short-term thought”, Van Gaal said.

Van Gaal must now rally his players for Saturday’s trip to surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City, when top spot will be on the line. “It was a game we were capable of winning”.

The former Fleetwood Town player last week equalled Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record of scoring in 10 consecutive matches. “You need to take these chances and we didnt”, Smalling told RTÉ Sport.

“With the amount of chances that we created, we should have probably won the game, especially in the second half when it came open”. You’ll never know, but you as a journalist you are thinking, “Yeah, it is like that”.

“In the second half we showed a lack of composure but we are not ruthless enough”.

“We’ve made it hard for ourselves ahead of the last game but we’ll go to Wolfsburg with hope”.

United have been heavily criticised this season for their frustrating failure to score goals, with a boring defensive approach favoured over their more traditional eye-catching attacking style, which was prevalent under Sir Alex Ferguson. If we are not creating chances, then I am very anxious.

Van Gaal started the season with just three recognised strikers in his first team squad: Wayne Rooney, new signing Anthony Martial, and James Wilson.

Defender Chris Smalling echoed Rooney’s sentiemtns and said United paid the price for not taking their chances.