Van Gaal slams Neville’s criticism of United win

SOUTHAMPTON — Louis van Gaal took aim at Gary Neville last night after Manchester United’s fortuitous 2-1 win against Southampton, describing him as an “ex-legend” who “has to pay attention to his words”.

Neville was highly critical of United’s performance — Robin van Persie’s brace either side of a Graziano Pelle strike gave them victory — on Sky Sports, saying they “got away with murder”, and that this Sunday’s game against Liverpool would be like watching “the Dog and Duck against the Red Lion”.

“United’s passing was laughable, and when Van Gaal watches it back I’m sure they’ll feel the same. United got away with murder tonight,” said Neville.

“That’s an English expression?” Van Gaal asked, his ears pricking up at the word “murder” when told of Neville’s comments.

When it was clarified that Neville was not accusing United of homicide, the Dutchman replied: “He (Neville) can say everything, because he is an ex-legend. But as a legend, you have to know what you are saying. He has to pay attention to his words.”

It was a delightfully waspish post-match performance from Van Gaal, who spared nobody his wrath, including a glare and caustic response to a journalist who enquired whether Michael Carrick’s deployment in central defence meant United were short in defence.

But the bulk of Van Gaal’s criticism was reserved for his winning players. Only three of them, he claimed, played well. “It’s fantastic to be third in the table, but I had hoped that we would do that with a better performance,” he said. “Because tonight we were the lucky team. Today there were too many players who were not good.” Who were they? “That is for me to know, not for you,” Van Gaal replied tartly.

It is safe to assume one of them was defender Paddy McNair, who was substituted after just 38 minutes. United had just three shots, played 57 long balls — only 27 were successful — and just three touches in the Southampton penalty area in the first half.

Southampton coach Ronald Koeman claimed his side played the better football. He said: “We played our style, our way of playing ... but we did mistakes as well. I said to my players: We did not lose against Manchester United tonight. We lost to ourselves.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH