United secured a fifth straight win by beating Southampton 2-1 on Monday night but Neville was
highly critical of their performance at St Mary’s.
In his post-match analysis on Sky, Neville claimed his old
side "got away with murder" and said Sunday's Premier League clash
with Liverpool could be "like The Dog and Duck versus The Red Lion".
And while Van Gaal admitted his side had not been at their
best against the Saints, he took exception to Neville’s pub match
jibe.
"The former player of United?" asked Van Gaal when
quizzed on England coach Neville's comments.
"That's an English expression? Hmm: maybe (United got
away with murder).
"He can say everything because he is an ex-legend, but
as an ex-legend, or a legend, you have to know what you are saying.
"You can interpret: make an interpretation of that.
It's not so difficult to make an interpretation, when I say he has to pay attention
to his words."
United may have left the south coast with three points but
it was far from a vintage performance.
Van Gaal was forced to hauled off youngster Paddy McNair in
the first half and rearrange his side with Saints pressing continuously and had
Robin van Persie to thank for sealing a barely deserved win.
Van Gaal praised the performance of Van Persie, who struck
both goals for the visitors, but admitted too many of his players
underperformed.
"I think that not only the goals are telling something
about Robin Van Persie, I think also his performance: he was one of only three
players on the pitch of Manchester United who were good, or maybe very
good," said the Dutchman.
"He had a great influence on the result. Until now that
is his best performance.
“Too many players were not good. There was a range of course
between good and bad, but they were not good.
"Normally you have six, seven, eight who are good and three
in that other range. But today there were too many players in that range who
were not good, I believe."
No comments:
Post a Comment