Manchester United again proved they are far away to recollect their glorious days when they failed to overcome West Bromwich at The Hawthorns last night. Van Gaal’s star studded army lost the game by a narrow 1-0 margin and dropped at number six on the board shutting all the doors for their entry into the Champions League next year. This could possibly be the biggest blow to Louis van Gaal whose days leading the Manchester giants seem to be numbered now after a devastating display yesterday. Even Dutchman takes it as the biggest failure of his career that he could not brought Red Devils to a respectable position. However, like always, Van Gaal has a strong objection over the way referee Mike Dean sent off Juan Mata after first his encroaching attempt over Darren Fletcher’s free kick and then his foul on the Scot and Dutchman calls the need of an experienced mediator at those critical moments. Talking about Mata and if he was right to dismiss his in-form player during critical moments, he said, “The first yellow card was a stupid yellow card because you know in advance that it is a yellow card.
“The second, you know you have already one yellow so you have to take that into account. You damage your team. But a referee has to also know the person who makes the tackle. Juan Mata never hurts an opponent. I asked him how many red cards had he had. He said: ‘None, that is the first.’ I assumed that already. You have to know the character of the players. That is why an experienced referee is better. He knows the players better, knows the game better.
“Is a foul always a yellow card? You saw the first three tackles by West Bromwich Albion on our players. There were no yellow cards. The decision was the turning point in the match.”
Adding about the turning point of the game when they had virtually lost the game, former Real Madrid boss said, “We have played 60 minutes with 10 men against 11 men. This is our fifth match in 14 days, I believe. It’s very difficult for them to play against 11 players. That’s the reason we lost, because we didn’t give many chances away in the first half or in the second half. The only chance, more or less, was the goal.
“What can I say? It is a great pity we had to play with 10 men against 11 men.”