VAN GAAL HAILS 'FANTASTIC' MEMPHIS AND LINGARD
The Manchester United coach was delighted
with the young duo as his side secured a
dramatic victory over Watford on Saturday
Louis van Gaal was delighted with the
performances of Memphis Depay and Jesse
Lingard as makeshift attackers for Manchester
United in their 2-1 Premier League win over
Watford.
The onus was on the two wingers to lead the
line at Vicarage Road with strikers Anthony
Martial, Wayne Rooney and James Wilson all
absent.
Depay opened the scoring with an impressive
volley, before Troy Deeney scored at both ends
in a dramatic finale to ensure United took
three points.
When asked about the Netherlands
international's contribution, Van Gaal told BT
Sport : "The first half he was superb, like Jesse
Lingard.
"I think also this role is the best role for him;
he played it also in the world championship for
me when Robin van Persie or Arjen Robben
was injured, so I knew that he could do this.
"But also Jesse was fantastic - because of
those two we created a lot of chances.
"I was amazed about the spirit in our team
because there was a late penalty to make it a
draw, then you give the team another stimulus
and you can create in five minutes another
three possibilities to score.
"Before the goal from Bastian Schweinsteiger
[which has been credited as a Deeney own
goal], Chris Smalling also had a fantastic kick
on the goal and Heurelho Gomes saved it
fantastically.
"When you can do that as a team then I am
very proud that I am the manager."
Van Gaal was pleased to reach the Premier
League summit, even if it is likely to be a
temporary stay once the other fixtures have
been concluded.
"Of course we are fighting for the first position
in the Premier League," he said.
"We are that maybe for one hour but it is the
second time we have done that now. We are
every week closer, but where you are at the
end is more important.
"We didn't play so good offensively. We have
created a lot of chances and we could have
finished the game already much earlier when
we see the easy chances for Jesse Lingard.
"But we didn't play so well in ball possession.
We did play very good when the opponent had
the ball but we didn't give away more than
three or four chances. That is it and the
penalty was given.
"So you cannot say that we gave a lot away,
but I can expect we do better with our
possession game than we did."
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