19th August, 2015
Louis van Gaal admitted he wanted to “kiss” Memphis Depay after he scored twice and created Manchester United’s third in Tuesday evening’s 3-1 win over Club Brugge in the first leg of their Champions League play-off at Old Trafford.
The Belgian team scored first via Michael Carrick’s eighth-minute own goal before Depay led the comeback. The Dutchman then crossed for Marouane Fellaini to head home just before the final whistle.
Depay’s goals were his first for United and his overall contribution makes the team firm favourites to progress to the group stage when next week’s return leg is played in Bruges.
Van Gaal was glowing in his praise of the winger. “I want to kiss him tonight because when you score two goals and have an assist then normally in the world you are the hero,” he said.
Depay might have claimed a hat-trick but spurned a second-half chance that left him disappointed. Van Gaal said: “He is never satisfied and I like that because you have to know what you are doing and also what you can do. Then your desire to improve is higher – and that’s Memphis.
“I am very happy for him because a player needs that. I had said it is a matter of time and it was a matter of time. Hopefully he shall continue, but it is also difficult for him. He is 21 and has only played two seasons for PSV [Eindhoven]. But I have confidence in him and tonight he scored two goals and the assist for the third goal was a fantastic cross from him, so I am very happy.”
Depay said: “It’s a nice feeling to score at Old Trafford my first two goals.
“It was really important to get the last goal and we travel to Bruges and we have to finish the job there. I must admit I’m a bit disappointed because I could have scored the last two chances and got a hat-trick. I will think about that tonight and forget about it tomorrow. But it was a good result.”
Fellaini’s late goal gave United a much-needed cushion, Van Gaal admitted. Asked if he was relieved to see the substitute score, the manager said: “Yes, of course. It makes a difference because 2-1 is a very difficult result. We deserved much more because we created a lot of chances. There was a lot of criticism that we never shoot on goal and we do not create chances. Now, you can see we created a lot of chances.
“As I always say, you have to be effective and sometimes with three chances you have two goals. Now we have a lot of chances and three goals. I am happy because of the last goal. We practised that [move] before and when we need him [Fellaini] we put him in the 16-metre area because he has that quality and he has done that a lot of times with me, so I am very happy with him.”
Van Gaal still believes the return match could be difficult. “Yes it is a difficult ground, and it is not a simple opponent. I have read in the papers in England that it is simple and it is a walkover, but it isn’t like that. Every team that comes, such as Brugge against Panathinaikos, they won 3-0 [in the previous round]. It is still a game, but because of the last goal we now have more confidence,” he said.
When asked about taking off Michael Carrick at half-time the Dutchman said: “It was a tactic switch. I have to also build up [Bastian] Schweinsteiger and that is why I changed Michael for Schweinsteiger.”
Wayne Rooney again failed to score and the captain struggled to make an impact throughout. But Van Gaal said: “He had a shot on goal [in the first half] so I’m happy.”