Louis van Gaal blames 'law of Murphy' for Manchester United's shock defeat in Denmark

Manchester United lost 2-1 to FC Midtjylland

(Getty Images)

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal blamed bad luck for his team's shock 2-1 defeat to FC Midtjylland on Thursday night.

The Dutchman blamed the old adage Murphy's law for the defeat - the saying that states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

No 1 goalkeeper David De Gea was injured during the warm-up at the MCH Arena, just a day after club captain Wayne Rooney was ruled out for between six and eight weeks because of injury.

"It is the law of Murphy I think," Van Gaal told BT Sport. "When you are starting a game and your goalkeeper is No 14, you are not starting like usual I think.

"A lot of things are happening in the heads of the players and in the first 10 or 15 minutes we were not so good. But after that we came in the match, we scored, we could have scored more. But it is too much.

"In the second half we didn't win any duels, any second balls. You cannot afford a second goal, but we could have scored also. Jesse Lingard had two remarkable chances.

"It is the law of Murphy."

Players were heavily criticsed by the fans who travelled to the game, with "we're s*** and we know we are" being vociferously chanted in the closing stages.

Van Gaal said the criticism was fair.

"The fans can criticise," he said. "They can do it because when you see the second half, maybe they are right. We have to improve and then the fans shall support us again.

"All the players want to perform in an excellent way. It is not a case of attitude. We were not winning the second balls - that is my analysis."