Who said what as Manchester United's loss to Norwich City increases pressure on Louis van Gaal

Modified Dec 20, 2015 07:43 GMT

The Red Devils were dismal against a vibrant Norwich City

Manchester United were stunned by a counter-attacking Norwich City to go down 2-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday night.

Cameron Jerome stunned Old Trafford into silence with a goal in the 39th minute, giving Norwich the lead, evading a couple of challenges to strike past De Gea. Alex Tettey toe poked the ball into the bottom corner in the 54th minute to give the Canaries a 2-0 lead.

Anthony Martial scored from close range in the 66th minute, but Norwich held on for the victory as the final whistle blew to consign Louis van Gaal’s men to another defeat, continuing their winless run of 6 games in all competitions.

Here are a few thoughts from players, managers, and pundits all over the world:

Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal: “You have to win against Norwich City, you have to win every home match. We have never lost this season at home and we are in a bad period and you can see what (a lack of) confidence is doing to my players.”

Van Gaal exhorted United’s fans to stick with the team, underlying their importance by saying, “The problem is how we come out of this bad period. That can be done when we stick together, not just the players, manager and staff but the fans - that is very important. Everything I say about the defeat is one word too much because the expectation is that we beat Norwich and we didn’t do that.”

When asked about the increased pressure on him and rumours about his future, Van Gaal said, “In the 25 years of management I evaluate myself every day. I am not the same coach of 25 years ago and I always evaluate. This is why I am, or maybe I now have to say was, a very successful manager.”

“Yes I worry about my job because I know that belief in a manager is very important and when you lose the games, the belief in the manager will decrease. That is happening now. I cannot close my eyes to that.”

Norwich City manager Alex Neil: “The one thing about Louis van Gaal teams is they start quick, they press high up the pitch and they get in your face and we needed to make sure we weren't going to overplay or risk conceding an early goal. We had to be in the game after 30 minutes and then we can hurt them on the counter. Our players' work ethic was incredible.”

Juan Mata:

“Of course we’re disappointed. We should win at Old Trafford if we want to be successful, but we haven’t done it. We feel deeply sorry for the fans, I think they’re incredible, so we have to do better for them.”

Speaking about the late, but ultimately failed comeback, Mata said, “You always have to believe until the end that you can score, firstly to equalise and then win the game. Anthony Martial scored a good goal and after that we created chances, but it was too late in the game I think. We couldn’t do it, and I’m very disappointed."

Speaking about the heavy winter schedule, the Spaniard added,“It’s Christmas time, a crucial time, so we have to do it. We have to try to be positive. As always, I think everyone is trying their best, but things are not working. We obviously need to win soon, but especially now that we have a lot of games in a short period of time.”

Louis van Gaal could share Jose Mourinho’s fate, as calls for LvG to go increased

Rio Ferdinand endured a miserable night, while Gary Lineker could not contain his glee at the thought of Mourinho at Old Trafford.

Rio Ferdinand:

Wow....pep going to City....is this clarified, concrete news??? And @ManUtd losing....the day couldn't get much worse...
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) December 19, 2015