It’s just not acceptable, admits Carrick

From Back Page injured his knee in the warm-up. But having taken the lead through Memphis Depay, Van Gaal acknowledged that they should have beaten a team lying third in the Danish Superliga who had not played a competitive game since mid-December. United have now won just nine of their last 27 games in all competitions, and midfielder Michael Carrick said: ‘It’s just not good enough, it’s not acceptable. It’s got to be a lot better. ‘We caused a lot of our own problems. We scored a good goal but we didn’t really kick on. We should have won. With a performance like that we’re going home very disappointed. ‘The only positive is we’ve got another chance to put it right and to go through. Of course it’s not going to be easy but playing at home we still fancy our chances.’ The defeat followed Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Premier League strugglers Sunderland and puts Van Gaal under huge pressure again ahead of Monday’s trip to Shrewsbury in the FA Cup. He defended his team by pointing out that De Gea’s injury means he was without 14 players in Denmark following the news that Wayne Rooney will be out for at least six weeks with a knee injury. But the United manager admitted that Midtjylland simply showed greater desire after the break. He said: ‘In the second half Midtjylland were winning every ball and that is very disappointing because you know in advance that is the key of this game. ‘But when you have 13 injured players and a few minutes before the game add another player to the list then it is difficult to cope.’