Louis van Gaal vowed to fight on as Manchester United manager after his team’s goalless draw against Chelsea.
United stretched their winless run to eight matches after their seventh goalless stalemate of the campaign.
The Red Devils are in their lowest position at this stage of the season in 26 years, but there were enough encouraging signs for Van Gaal to deny he would quit, as he suggested he might after the 2-0 loss at Stoke on Boxing Day.
United put on their best display of the season in the first 45 minutes, rattling the woodwork on two occasions and drawing two superb saves from Thibaut Courtois.
United were unable to find the net, but Van Gaal, who was applauded as he entered and left the pitch on Monday, was in a boisterous mood post-match.
“Inside of the club the players are willing to fight for every metre, the manager is willing to fight, the members of staff are willing to fight and the board is very confident in the staff and the manager so it (the negativity) is not inside Manchester United,” he said.
A few United fans made it clear they wanted Jose Mourinho in the home dugout, rather than Van Gaal. Red scarves with Mourinho’s face on them were being sold by unofficial vendors outside the stadium before kick-off.
A handful of fans snapped them up for the asking price of £10 and inside the stadium, one fan held up a placard that read: “Leave, Vanish, Go”.
But for the most part, the United fans appreciated the attacking football on display in the first half. The full-backs overlapped the wingers, the forwards ran at Chelsea’s defence and the tempo was much higher.
Van Gaal admits he is powerless to stop the board acting if they want to make a change, but he did not seem terribly worried about his future.
“I cannot have any influence on that,” he said. “I can only work with my players and you have seen that the players are fighting for me; they have given a good performance.
“After this result the fans were applauding. I cannot say that I am very much concerned, but in this football world you never know.
“When the players can give such a performance with this lot of pressure then it is not any reason to resign for me.
“I am under contract so it’s not a question of staying, it is a question of fulfilling my contract.”
Van Gaal was happy on the whole with his team’s display.
“I think it was a very good performance, but you have to score a goal and we didn’t,” he said. “Against Stoke in the first half we didn’t dare to play, but that’s a big difference today – we dared to play and pressed a lot. We were the dominant team, we created chances, we shot on goal and only gave three chances away. Against a team like Chelsea, with such attackers, that’s not bad.”
The Dutchman’s only disappointment was with referee Martin Atkinson, who failed to award United two penalties.
The first came when Juan Mata went down in the box following a challenge by Cesar Azpilicueta and then Willian’s handball went unnoticed by the officials.
“We had two penalty cases, one the foul on Mata, the other the handball of Willian,” Van Gaal said.
“When I was on the bench I thought it was not on purpose but when you see on the video, you see the hand is going to the ball and not the ball is going to the hand and then you can only say we are unlucky.” – Skysports.
