Manchester United 0 PSV Eindhoven 0: Louis van Gaal 'worried' at prospect of Champions League elimination

Van Gaal witnessed his side labour to a 0-0 draw with PSV which leaves their Champions League future in the balance heading to Wolfsburg

Louis van Gaal is 'worried' after Manchester United's 0-0 draw with PSV Eindhoven (Getty Images)

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal admitted that he was worried his side are not scoring enough goals, after the stalemate against PSV Eindhoven left them facing the risk of exiting the Champions League at the group stage.

United must win in Wolfsburg if PSV beat CSKA Moscow, as they are expected to do, and van Gaal was left to cite his club’s improving “average in away games” as a source of encouragement.

After a game which left former United midfielder Paul Scholes reflecting that Van Gaal has “sorted the backline, but they don't look like they're going to score goals,” the manager admitted that six goals in eight games was a concern.

He said: “Of course I am worried but I know also that goals are coming and going. It is not a consequence of good or bad performances. Today we could have scored at least three goals. It was not the most difficult chances but we didn’t score and the next game you can score out of nothing. That is football.”

He said he could not explain why United were poor. “That is dependable of the shape of the evening, the shape of the moment,” Van Gaal said. “They are human beings and also the opponent, how they play the game and how they defend or attack and the reason, the real reason you never know. You can guess but never know.”

PSV manager Phillip Cocu said that Van Gaal’s decision to deploy Marouane Fellaini in place of Bastian Schweinsteiger actually made life easier for the Dutch side, who subsequently had more space to operate in, with United reduced to the long ball game. Only after 84 minutes did Juan Mata arrive

“We knew if he came on the game would be more direct. I thought it was positive for us. We were prepared for it and the team did well and we got more space in midfield and on the sides,” Cocu said.

But Van Gaal was prickly when it was suggested that Mata might have come on earlier, rather than Fellaini, who operated in a more deep-lying role than usual. “That is always the question after a disappointing result when you are coming with this kind of questions,” he said. “But I have thought with this line up we had the best chance to win and you shall not know if it was with Mata in the beginning happening. You never know but you as a journalist are thinking yes that is like that but you cannot know.”

Van Gaal’s discussion of the game suggested that his changes should have improved the side in the second half. “In the first half I can say it was average but in the second half in spite of my changes it did not improve,” he insisted

Wayne Rooney said United had not been ruthless enough. "No, we're not. I think we need to score more goals as a team and, as I said before, in the first-half, if we get one goal, it's a completely different game.

"We could control the game and they would have to come out a bit more, but it never happened and so they can sit back a bit more and try to hit us on the break, which they nearly did a few times. It's a learning curve for us, but we can't go on saying it's a learning curve. We have to start turnikng these games into victories."