Van Gaal Impressed By Smalling And Herrera

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal praised substitutes Chris Smalling and Ander Herrera for their contribution in the 3-1 victory over Burnley.

Smalling scored twice and earned the Man of the Match award while MUTV's David May also included Spanish schemer Herrera on his three-man shortlist. Both pressed their claims for a start in the FA Cup tie at Preston North End next week, even if the overall team performance disappointed the boss.

When asked if the early enforced withdrawal of Phil Jones and Daley Blind upset his side, van Gaal replied to MUTV: "I don't think the subs did badly! I like Smalling. He scores two times and he's never scored twice in a match because I asked him.

"Furthermore, in the second half, he was improving his game. I was very happy with him. Also Herrera, who was coming in for Blind, played very well, I think."

The Reds struggled to impress in the first period and were fortunate to go into the interval with a 2-1 advantage, courtesy of Smalling's stoppage-time header, following Danny Ings' equaliser.

"It was not good in the first half," admitted van Gaal. "We didn't perform well and Burnley were the better team on the pitch. But we were ahead in the result and I was very happy with that.

"Okay, it is also from corner kicks. We train a lot on corner kicks but it was a lucky result at half time. I have to say we improved in the second half and created more chances, also scoring a third goal. We could have scored more and we only gave one chance away to Burnley."

The manager revealed this week he wants his side to play with a higher ball speed, passing quicker, but there were few signs of such slick play.

"No," he answered, when asked if he had seen this from his players. "Because they pressed us and we lost the ball. Every second ball was to Burnley. We didn't keep the ball and so you cannot give the ball more speed. We have to do it but, when you lose the ball already with the first or second pass, you know that it's very difficult."