admin
LONDON. — Louis van Gaal on Tuesday night came under heavy fire as Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League, with a 3-2 defeat in Wolfsburg condemning them to the Europa League.
A picture of the Dutchman sitting in the dug-out with his head in his hands during Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg adorned several back pages, The Times branding United’s exit “Embarrassing, Amateurish, Excruciating”.
Manchester City’s 4-2 win over Borussia Monchengladbach — with two goals from Raheem Sterling — sent them sailing through at the head of Group D. But United legends Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes both slammed United’s failure, a situation which leaves the manager facing growing pressure.
Scholes said: “Van Gaal will be under pressure now. There was no urgency, threat or quality. They are an average team and with an average team, you get average performances.”
Former United skipper Ferdinand said: “It’s an embarrassment to be in the Europa League. You don’t want to come out of the house or walk around Manchester when you’re playing in it.
“United have not been good enough through the course of this campaign. They can’t think of themselves as unlucky. This squad needs a real hard look at itself.”
Ferdinand, analysing the game for BT Sport, said that dropping into the Europa League was unacceptable for a club who reached three Champions League finals between 2008 and 2011.
“I was in a squad that went into the Europa League (in 2011) and it’s an embarrassment,” he said.
“You don’t want to come out of your house, you don’t want to walk around Manchester. You’re looking at people looking at you and thinking, ‘Ah, you’re not good enough.’”
The recurring word on the British newspapers’ sports pages was “humiliated”, with the Daily Telegraph describing United as “a very limited side” who had failed to navigate “a very mediocre group”.
United finished below both Wolfsburg and PSV Eindhoven, sides whose wage bills are dwarfed by their own, and The Guardian said that their fate was “precisely what they deserved”.
Many see in United’s current guise a betrayal of the principles of fast, attacking football associated with the long, glorious tenure of former manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
“The United whom Ferguson embodied, the fighting, attacking, winning United, are no more,” wrote The Times. “They have been replaced by United Lite.”
Michael Owen, another former United player, said that Van Gaal was under “severe pressure”, while the former Arsenal and Wales striker John Hartson suggested the club had reached a critical juncture.
“The owners have a big decision,” Hartson said on BBC Radio Five. “Do they let him continue to spend, or do they rip it all up and start again? I don’t think Van Gaal has cut it at Manchester United.”
Van Gaal has spent over £250 million on new players since succeeding David Moyes last year, but despite steering the club back into the Champions League, he remains a divisive figure.
Frustrated fans at Old Trafford have taken to chanting “Attack, attack, attack!” in an effort to rouse their team, while there were calls for Van Gaal to be sacked on late-night radio phone-ins after Tuesday’s game.
United will drop into Europe’s second club competition for only the second time in more than 20 years.
And van Gaal says he is unable to defend himself following Manchester United’s Champions League exit, but he insists the Red Devils are improving under his tenure.
United crashed out with a 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg, who made club history by reaching the knock-out stages as Group B winners.
PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 win at home to CSKA Moscow allowed the Dutch to claim second place at Manchester’s expense as third-placed United now drop into the Europa League.
The Red Devils suffered a repeat of their 2011/12 European campaign when defeat in their final group game at FC Basel also denied them a place in the last 16.
The defeat puts Van Gaal under pressure with his side now winless in their last four games, but he says pundits who claim United are not improving under his stewardship are incorrect.
“I can’t defend myself, because we are out of the Champions League and every word I say will be wrong,” he said with United fourth in the English Premier League table.
“But when you see the facts, we qualified for Europe last season and we are in a good position in the league.
“The facts say we are better than last year.
“I can only give facts, but of course I am disappointed that we are out of the Champions League.”
Having scored just one goal in drawing their last three games, United needed just 10 minutes to take the lead at Wolfsburg’s Volkswagen Arena.
Anthony Martial’s early strike for the Red Devils was cancelled out by first-half goals from Brazil’s Naldo and Portugal’s Vieirinha.
United drew level when Wolfsburg’s French midfielder Josuha Guilavogui scored a late own goal seconds before Naldo claimed his second by heading the winner. — AFP.
Online Reporter