Van Gaal rejects Allardyce jibes
Louis van Gaal pulled out a dossier full of statistics at his press conference as he hit back at Sam Allardyce's claim that Manchester United are long-ball merchants.
West Ham boss Allardyce described Van Gaal's team as "long-ball United" after they scraped a 1-1 draw at Upton Park on Sunday.
But Van Gaal said Allardyce's "interpretation" was incorrect and the Dutchman produced a pamphlet filled with statistics at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday to support his stance.
The statistics quoted in the A4 pamphlet, which were put together by Van Gaal's analysts, claim West Ham sent a higher percentage of their long passes forward than United during the match.
West Ham attempted 200 passes, according to the figures, and United 343.
The pamphlet said 71.1 per cent of West Ham's "long passes" - of over 25 metres - went forward whereas United's percentage was just 49.9 per cent.
Diagrams in the pamphlet claim to show United's passes went sideways or diagonally, rather than forward.
Van Gaal talks regularly about the fact that he wants his teams to play attractive football.
He was clearly, therefore, annoyed at Allardyce's comments and he had the pamphlet on his desk waiting when he fielded the first question about the West Ham boss' jibe.
"Because I expected this question, I have made an interpretation of the data for this game and then I have to say that it is not a good interpretation from Big Sam," Van Gaal said.
Van Gaal insisted his team only started launching balls forward after 6ft 4in Marouane Fellaini came on in the 76th minute of the draw in east London.
"When you have 60 per cent ball possession do you think that you can do that with long balls?" Van Gaal added.
"Yeah, long balls, in the width, to switch the play. You have to look at the data and then you will see that we did play long balls, but long balls wide, rather than to the striker.
"A ball to the forward striker is mainly caused long-ball play.
"It is not so difficult also to read that.
"I am sorry, but we are playing ball possession play and after 70 minutes we did not succeed, in spite of many chances in the second half, then I changed my playing style.
"Then, of course, with the quality of Fellaini we played more forward balls and we scored from that, so I think it was a very good decision of the manager.
"But, when you see overall the long ball, and what is the percentage of that, then West Ham have played 71 per cent of the long balls to the forwards and we 49."
United may be fourth in the Barclays Premier League, but the team lacks the energy, dynamism and flair of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
"I think we have played attractive games and less attractive games," Van Gaal said.
Van Gaal's United take on Burnley at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Luke Shaw is suspended following his sending-off at West Ham and Michael Carrick is absent because of a calf injury.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche reacted with incredulity to criticism of United for being a long-ball team.
The Clarets boss said: "I find it incredible, the whole thing.
"I think back to my youth and a player then who was renowned was Glenn Hoddle. Was he renowned for playing five and 10-yard passes? No he wasn't. Was Ronald Koeman renowned for playing five and 10-yard passes? He was marvelled at.
"I'm looking at Man Utd's team - I think they're capable of playing the ball more than five or 10 yards, and probably accurately and probably with some style.
"I'm certainly not questioning whether they're a long-ball side or not. I think it's a bizarre debate."
The trip to Old Trafford is the start of a formidable run of fixtures for Burnley, who headed into the midweek programme one point above the relegation zone.
Over the next two months they also face Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal, but Dyche is undaunted.
"This is the reality of the league," he said. "You've got to play everyone home and away. How they fall is irrelevant.
"It's the challenge we all wanted. I want it, the players want it, the town wanted it, the club wanted it. You can't then go, 'Oh, they're big games against big clubs'. Yes they are and that's exactly what we were expecting."
Burnley's hopes of surviving the drop were dealt a blow on Tuesday with the news key midfielder Dean Marney will miss the rest of the season after damaging his cruciate knee ligament.
The 31-year-old suffered the injury during Sunday's 2-2 draw with West Brom.
Marney joins defender Kevin Long, who suffered the same injury last month, in the treatment room, while striker Sam Vokes missed the start of the season as he recovered from a ruptured cruciate.
Source: PA
