Van Gaal Explains Tactial Tweak

Louis van Gaal has explained to MUTV why he opted for a change in formation for Saturday's 1-1 draw at Leicester City.

The Reds initially looked to be fielding a flat back four with Daley Blind at left-back, but he soon played centrally with Ashley Young dropping into a wing-back role. Matteo Darmian was on the opposite flank with the outstanding Chris Smalling and Paddy McNair also in the middle with Blind.

Injuries to Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo have upset the manager's defensive plans and the system was deployed with a view to nullifying the threat of Jamie Vardy, who scored the opening goal, and Shinji Okazaki.

"I have a lot of injuries in defence, so I was a little bit forced to do that," van Gaal replied when asked why he altered his tactics. "But I also did it because of the way Leicester play.

"I had to close the channels for Vardy and Okazaki, and that was always a reason, and we also had one man more in midfield so we had a lot of space and, because of that, we dominated the game. But we have to create more chances and we didn’t do that. We had more chances than Leicester City, but not too much.

"In the first half, we didn’t dominate as much as we did in the second half. So, in the second half, I was waiting on our goal but it didn’t come. They also had a good chance; we gave the ball away because [Paddy] McNair thought he was a striker at that moment and then the channels were open and then they could run in them."