West Ham vs Manchester United: Louis van Gaal warns West Ham will find Olympic Stadium switch difficult
Van Gaal's United take on West Ham in final game at the Boleyn Ground ground on Tuesday night
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal has warned West Ham United that they will find it difficult to make the switch from the Boleyn Ground, which hosts its final game on Tuesday night, to the Olympic Stadium next season.
Van Gaal has personal experience of this having moved as Ajax manager from their atmospheric old ‘De Meer’ ground in 1996 to the Amsterdam Arena, which was itself built for Amsterdam’s bid for the 1992 Olympic Games. He said that his Ajax team, who famously won the 1995 Champions League, struggled in their new home.
“It is a big night and I think the players shall feel that also,” Van Gaal said. “But when I changed with Ajax from the old stadium, De Meer, to the Amsterdam Arena where Ajax play still, the first matches in the Amsterdam Arena we lost. It is always important the influence of the stadium. But when we are away we always have fantastic fans.”
Van Gaal said the players struggled to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings.
“We played in the old stadium in front of 20,000 people and go to the new stadium, it was 55,000, it was a big difference,” he explained. “We have to imagine in De Meer the training pitches were very close to the stadium. But in the new stadium they were further away. We have to walk every day much further. And when it is every day it is not nice.” Van Gaal warned that only the next generation of players, who did not know the old stadium, could be comfortable in the new one. “You have to wait for the next generation,” he said, “because they don't know any better.”
Ultimately Van Gaal thinks that the emotion of Tuesday night will count against his United side, even though victory would put them in control of the race for fourth place.
“It is a negative for us, of course,” he said. “We have to play against an opponent who says goodbye to the stadium, and who don’t want to lose in the old stadium. They have already lost to Manchester United in the last FA Cup match, that is also history. It is not good for us, and West Ham United are a very good team. We have a lot of respect for West Ham United. They are a historical big club in England. We don’t want to spoil their party, but we need the three points. That is different.”
Van Gaal warned that his team may struggle against the height of Andy Carroll, especially with Marouane Fellaini suspended. “I am very worried about [Carroll] because I am always organising. We are normally the smallest team in the Premier League so we have problems with set plays. I cannot deny that.” Anthony Martial is set to miss out with a hamstring injury sustained at Carrow Road last Saturday.
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