Van Gaal tetchy over criticism

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal brushed aside scathing criticism from former players Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes after the 2–0 Europa League defeat to Liverpool.

Only the heroics of goalkeeper David de Gea prevented a landslide at Anfield, though he was beaten by a first–half Daniel Sturridge penalty and a late close–range strike from Roberto Firmino.

Ferdinand and Scholes labelled the performance “disjointed” and “shambolic” but a tetchy Van Gaal was in no mood to tolerate the opinions of a successful former generation.

“Is it important what Rio Ferdinand is saying, is that important to you?” he said.

“Of course Liverpool were the better team in the first half, but in second half we had a better match.

“They created big chances but we had a very good goalkeeper and because of that we were in the match.

“We have to improve a lot to create more goals.”

Scholes, who has been critical of his old team for some time, said on BT Sport Europe: “United were a shambles. At 2–0 they're still in the game, but when you're at Man United, I think there's certain standards you have to live up to and they've fallen well short.”