LVG LIFELINE
FA Cup relief for under-fire United boss
LOUIS VAN GAAL called on Manchester United to salvage their season after they avoided another embarrassment at Shrewsbury Town last night.
Injury-hit United bounced back from Europa League humiliation at the hands of Danish minnows FC Midtjylland by comfortably beating their League One opponents 3-0 to set up an FA Cup quarter-final at home to West Ham.
Van Gaal said: ‘Everything is possible. We are still in three competitions so we have to fight for all our chances.’
He believes United can still achieve
success in both cup competitions as well as chasing a top-four finish in the Premier League. Van Gaal added: ‘Everyone shall say United have to win against Shrewsbury. For the players it is fantastic because we are in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. ‘We are just six points behind Manchester City. We have a lot of chances, a lot of titles to fight for. It isn’t easy because we have to win a lot of games but it is still possible. ‘In March we will have a lot of players coming back and we will have a full selection. When we last had our full selection we were first in the Premier League.’ Chris Smalling, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard were on target last night, with Mata’s free-kick on the stroke of half-time allowed to stand even though three United players were standing in front of Shrewsbury goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler. Van Gaal was captured by TV cameras laughing and revealed afterwards that United had picked up the free-kick routine from Midtjylland last week. He added: ‘We have learned because we have analysed what Midtjylland did. We thought it would always be offside. So we have asked the referee and his assistants at that time and they are saying, “No, it is not offside, you can do that”. So that is how we have learned from Midtjylland and here we scored, so that was a good idea.’ However, there was more bad news on the injury front for United as Cameron Borthwick- Jackson, Will Keane and Lingard all picked up knocks. They finished the game with 10 men on the pitch as Van Gaal had used all his substitutes.