Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal believes Liverpool‘s collapse at Southampton on Sunday may have been due to tiredness from their 1-1 draw with the Red Devils on Thursday night.
The Reds were leading 2-0 at half-time at St. Mary’s thanks to goals from Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge, but a second-half comeback from the home side saw them lose 3-2.
Van Gaal believes that their second-half malaise may have been caused by tiredness due to playing against his United side on Thursday night at Old Trafford.
“I thought we played fantastic in the first half and the second half was a test of survival because we were very tired,” Van Gaal told reporters at his post-match press conference.
“We had only two days to recover after the Liverpool game and that is almost not possible. We have seen the result from Southampton today. Liverpool were 2-0 up at half-time and at full-time it was 3-2 to Southampton.
“I have not seen the match but I can only conclude it was because of tiredness and that is what we have done to them.”
Liverpool knocked United out of Europe on Thursday as a first-half goal from Coutinho was the away goal Jurgen Klopp’s side needed to effectively see out the tie, as they won 3-1 on aggregate.
It was arguably the most disappointing night of Van Gaal’s time in charge at Old Trafford but he at least pulled a good result out of the bag at the weekend with a 1-0 win in the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
It has been a miserable few days for United supporters but on Sunday they were smiling thanks to other results going their way.
As a result of Liverpool’s defeat at Southampton, their chances of finishing fourth took a huge hit, meaning that it could now be just United and West Ham having a straight shootout with City for the final top-four spot.
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