Van Gaal furious as Manchester United woes continue

Louis van Gaal is understandably furious with his Manchester United players after they fell to a second league defeat of the season on Sunday.

Having collected just two points from their opening three matches of the campaign, it looked as though United’s fortunes were on the up when a number of their expensive summer recruits impressed in a 4-0 win over Queens Park Rangers last weekend. However, rather than build on this much-needed victory, their old frailties were once more on show at the King Power Stadium in one of the most remarkable matches in recent times.

Goals from Robin van Persie and Angel di Maria put the visitors 2-0 up after 16 minutes, and despite Leonardo Ulloa shortly pulling one back shortly afterwards, Ander Herrera restored the two-goal advantage just before the hour mark. But what was to follow in the final third of this fixture will live long in the memory of the Premier League, and in particularly for those Leicester City fans who were about to witness a sensational fightback.

A controversial penalty, awarded when Rafael da Silva pulled back the impressive Jamie Vardy, allowed David Nugent to get the Foxes back in the game, and a minute later Argentine legend Esteban Cambiasso fired a shot past David de Gea to square the score. Incredibly, Vardy then fired the hosts ahead on 79 minutes, and the comeback was completed when Ulloa scored from the spot after Tyler Blackett had been shown a red card.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time van Gaal has been on the receiving end of such a story, as in 1998 his Barcelona side surrendered a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 against Valencia. But this is the first time in 853 Premier League matches that United had thrown away a two-goal lead and lost, and the Dutch coach is understandably far from happy with his players who must now pick themselves up ahead of West Ham United’s visit on Saturday.

“I cannot say that I am happy,” he said. “In the world of football, these matches happen. It is not good because we had the game in our pocket and gave it away. Not because of Leicester, we gave it away and I don’t like that. You never expect it when you are 3-1 ahead, you have to kill the game and keep possession but we didn’t do that. The problem is that we started the last match against QPR very good with a new team, new players and then we play here and play very well then give the game away. We have to continue and improve.”

Whilst most of the headlines will naturally be centred on United, much credit must be directed at a Leicester side who were given a harsh reintroduction to the top-flight. Already they had taken a point off both Everton and Arsenal, and they were narrowly – and some would even say unfortunately – beaten at Chelsea. This is their second win of the season after a 1-0 triumph at Stoke City last weekend, and places them seventh in the table.

“We did enough to win the game, no matter where people think United are at the moment,” said their manager, Nigel Pearson. “I’m very pleased, though this will generate more scrutiny about them than our play. It says so much about the character of our players and maybe shows we’ve got a bit more quality than people are aware of.”

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