Van Gaal Backs United Defence

Louis van Gaal says his defenders deserve more credit and believes he has found a winning formula at Manchester United.

The United backline came in for criticism earlier in the season, particularly following their 5-3 defeat at newly-promoted Leicester in September.

However, Van Gaal was eager to point out to Sky Sports that only two teams – Southampton and Chelsea – have conceded fewer goals this term.

“When you read the papers back from the beginning and you have seen the criticism of all our defenders, and now we are the third in the Premier League table in conceding goals,” said Van Gaal, ahead of United's 2-1 win at Liverpool.

“We never have had compliments. They have said our defenders were very lousy – but we have the same defenders and they are still saying we are poor defending.

“These are the same defenders I had at the beginning of the season.”

Van Gaal has experimented with both three and four-man defences in this campaign, but appears to have hit upon a winning formula with a 4-3-3 system.

United stunned Tottenham 3-0 last weekend – registering their third-straight clean sheet in the league - and the Dutchman explained the benefits of that formation.

“Everybody knows the system I prefer is the 4-3-3, with a holding midfielder and number 10 behind the strikers,” he said.

“It is dependable on the quality of the players but also the opponent but that’s the easiest system to dominate the game. Over the whole pitch it is triangles, and that gives the players at least two options.

“But I have played with several other systems because of the quality of players who were available at that moment.

“That was a very good first half against Tottenham and in the second half the players did what I want, that is finish the game. The fans were very happy with the performance, I was very happy, we scored beautiful goals. Everything came together.”

Credit: Skysports.com