Job done for Man United and ‘satisfied’ Louis Van Gaal

It is becoming a theme of Louis Van Gaal’s United tenure.
United fans might not be best pleased but at this rate, it might just return some silverware and then who could argue?
Goals from Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini and Wayne Rooney helped ensure United survive a scare against Preston to move within three matches of a 12th FA Cup.
“I was reasonably satisfied,” Van Gaal said of United’s display. “We didn’t give anything away. The Preston goal was a little bit unlucky.
“But then we showed an unbelievable team spirit. We changed the shape and that was the solution. The spirit was better.”
The League One hosts put up a performance bursting with pride to match their opponents in the first half and they took a shock lead early in the second half through Scott Laird.
Ultimately, though, United’s power proved pivotal.
Van Gaal boasts that he won trophies in his first season as manager of previous clubs Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich and his chances of maintaining that record in England almost certainly lie solely with the FA Cup.
No team has won this competition more times than United but their 11th and most recent triumph came in 2004. None of the current squad has won the Cup during their time at Old Trafford.
Simon Grayson, the Preston manager, has previous experience of causing a cup upset against United while in charge of a team from the third tier.
He was manager of Leeds when they stunned Alex Ferguson’s team in 2010, when Jermaine Beckford — now also of Preston – was on the scoresheet.
An ear infection denied Beckford the chance to repeat his heroics but Neil Kilkenny, who also starred in Leeds’ win at Old Trafford lined up in Preston’s midfield.
United laboured to victory over League One side Yeovil Town in the third round and required a replay to edge past Cambridge United of League Two in the fourth round, so Van Gaal’s players had little excuse for not knowing what to expect.
The first big cheer of the night from a packed out Deepdale came before kick-off as the quarter-final draw was shown on the big screen in the Bill Shankly stand as supporters learnt that the prize on offer was a home tie against Arsenal.
Joe Garner is North End’s top scorer with 14 goals so far this season and he had the best of their half-chances in the first half.
The striker latched on to Kilkenny’s through ball but could only fire tamely at David De Gea before heading over from Paul Gallagher’s free-kick.
One criticism of United under Van Gaal has been a lack of spark in attacking areas and it was evident again in the first half.
The away team controlled possession, as one would expect but rarely troubled Thorsten Stuckmann.
Angel Di Maria sent a dipping free kick wide after John Welsh’s heavy challenge on Radamel Falcao before of overhit passes from Daley Blind and Wayne Rooney brought promising attacks to disappointing ends.
The Preston supporters taunted their illustrious hosts with chants of “are you Blackpool in disguise?”.
In this parish, there are few more insulting questions.
If Preston’s priority was to get to make sure they were still in the match at half-time, they accomplished that admirably.
Within two minutes of the restart, the home supporters really had something to shout about. Garner’s ball found Laird on the over-lap and the wingback tried his luck with a low drive from the corner of the 18-yard box.
The ball hit Antonio Valencia’s heel and found its way beyond De Gea into the bottom corner.
Deepdale was rocking and United were reeling.
Van Gaal’s response was to replace the ineffectual Falcao with Ashley Young and he helped engineer United’s response. After receiving Blind’s pass, Young fed Herrera and the Spaniard’s shot under pressure was just powerful enough to beat Stuckmann inside the far post.
Fellaini had been largely anonymous in an attacking midfield position behind the front two of Falcao and Rooney but made his presence felt shortly after moving up alongside the England captain.
Fellaini’s header from Valencia’s right-wing cross was blocked well by Stuckmann but the Belgian reacted quickly and the Preston goalkeeper could not prevent him from sweeping the ball into the net from inside the six yard box.
Preston’s have not reached the last eight of the FA Cup since 1966 and their hopes of ending that wait were extinguished with two minutes remaining. Stuckmann came racing out of his goal in an attempt to reach a through ball but Rooney got there before him and went down though contact looked minimal.
The goalkeeper was booked and his next action was to pick the ball out of the net after Rooney lashed home the penalty.
That ended Preston brave resistance but Grayson was proud of his side’s efforts.
Regardless of the scoreline we are very proud of what we have done.
He said: “This is a big club, the infrastructure is in place. We are doing well in the league and we will draw from the experiences tonight.”
PRESTON (3-5-2): Stuckmann 6; Clarke 7, Huntington 7, Wright 6 (Wiseman, 75); Humphrey 7, Welsh 6, Kilkenny 6 (Reid, 75), Gallagher 7, Laird 7; Garner 7, Davies 6 (Robinson, 75).
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-1-2): De Gea 7; Valencia 7, Smalling 6, Rojo 6, Shaw 6; Herrera 6, Blind 6, Di Maria 6; Fellaini 7; Rooney 7, Falcao 5 (Young, 60, 7).
Referee: Phil Dowd 7.