Louis van Gaal believes his team got a little too comfortable against Swansea City today, which resulted in a five-minute battering that gave the Swans a 2-1 comeback win over Manchester United at the Liberty Stadium.
“We dominated for 85 minutes,” Van Gaal said after the match. “But then you have to have a result that is better than this, because we lost it in five minutes, and that cannot happen.”
[ RECAP: Manchester United fell to Swansea 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium ]
The Dutch manager pointed to Garry Monk’s introduction of Ki Sung-Yeung as the turning point in the game, with the substitution coming just before Swansea cashed in for a pair of quick goals which sent them to victory.
“They changed the shape [of their team], and then we have to be in a compact shape, and it is very difficult to beat us,” Van Gaal said. “We forgot that - maybe because we are too dominant at that time - but you can lose the game [that way] and we have to learn from this.”
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Bafetimbi Gomis and Andre Ayew troubled the Manchester United back line - mostly on the counter - for much of the match and proved threatening even when United was in control.
“The most important thing is to react when an opponent changes shape, and we didn’t do that fast enough. I can only change, so I have changed, and then the shape was in our benefit again because we were dominating the game again, but the players need to read the game for themselves.”