Louis van Gaal’s verdict on West Ham draw

That’s not a plan that’s always gone well for then this season – sometimes the teenager has risen to the challenge, and others he’s fallen short.

However, their defensive record remains the best in the top flight, and we understand the players are happy with the current situation, with United sitting a point off the top of the Premier League.

Van Gaal’s selection see Michael Carrick drop to the bench for this afternoon’s meeting with West Ham at Old Trafford.

While they had been keeping plenty of clean sheets, the Red Devils’ possession-based style had also delivered relatively few goals and been widely criticised as boring, with cries of “attack, attack, attack” being yelled at the team by some United supporters pining for the more dynamic displays of old. It’s a different story under Van Gaal. “It weakens the side slightly, we have a better chance when those players are not playing, but they’ve still got a top-quality squad of global players throughout”.

The Hammers wasted their own chances, with Mauro Zarate the most culpable. Again Fellaini was instrumental with a header from Jesse Lingard’s cross which picked out Anthony Martial, who thought he had scored with a shot on the turn from eight yards out which Reid bravely kept out as he threw himself in front of the ball.

Martial also caused West Ham problems with his pacy runs and Lingard also proved a threat on the left flank. With 20 minutes to go, Juan Mata shot wide and Bastian Schweinsteiger lashed a first-time effort over the bar as the home side upped the tempo in search of a late victor.

United are willing to pay big to bring in a marquee signing next summer – Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Neymar have all been mentioned as targets – but there is a also a recognition that signing such a big name will be hard.

Van Gaal’s safety-first approach has been criticised by the likes of Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand as being too negative.

United, now fourth in the standings, may be just three points off the top of the table, but – make no mistake – their fans are deeply unhappy with their manager.

It didn’t result in an injection of pace and penetration, though, as the tall Marouane Fellaini was deployed as the second striker and United’s buildup play was as one-paced as usual.

Van Gaal’s team could only muster a goalless draw against the Dutch champions and Wolfsburg’s 2-0 win at CSKA Moscow on the same night put United’s place in the competition in jeopardy.

When asked about his relationship with his players, Van Gaal said: “It’s good”.

“That is a question mark”.