Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal said his team had been simply overwhelmed by Liverpool’s high pressing during their one-sided 2-0 Europa League defeat at a raucous Anfield.
Daniel Sturridge, with a penalty, and Roberto Firmino scored as Liverpool claimed a deserved win on Thursday, and the hosts might have put the last 16 tie to bed had it not been for United goalkeeper David de Gea.
Ex-United players Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand, analysing the game for BT Sport, delivered stinging criticisms of their old team’s display the former branding it “shambolic” and Van Gaal conceded his side had struggled with the Liverpool’s intensity.
“I have seen we did not cope with the pressure, the high pressure of Liverpool,” Van Gaal told his post-match press conference after the first ever European meeting between England’s two most successful clubs.
“We had expected that and for me it was a surprise we did not cope with that because they did it the same way in the home match this year that we played against them (which United won 3-1).
“Because they provoked first, we could not play the ball from David de Gea to Daley Blind or Chris Smalling and they gave a lot of pressure and we could not cope with that.
“That raised the atmosphere. They created chances, but we had a very good goalkeeper and because of that we were [still] in the match.”
Van Gaal described both Sturridge’s 20th-minute penalty, awarded after Memphis Depay tugged back Nathaniel Clyne, and Firmino’s late effort, which stemmed from a loose Michael Carrick clearance, as “cheap”.
But he said that he had not seen a late incident in which United midfielder Marouane Fellaini appeared to catch Emre Can in the face with his elbow.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp also refused to be drawn on the matter.
“There’s nothing I should say,” he said. “I’m not the referee. You can write what you want, but without something from my side.”
The German was more effusive about his team’s performance, asserting with justification that their victory had been “absolutely deserved”.
