Manchester United: Van Gaal Praises Fosu-Mensah

Manchester United beat Everton 1-0 thanks to a good half from Fosu-Mensah.

After Manchester United’s victory against Everton at Old Trafford, Louis van Gaal lauded Timothy Fosu-Mensah’s performance on the right side of defense.

Marcos Rojo had a nightmare of a first half, struggling to keep pace with Everton’s Gerard Deulofeu on the left side of the defense. There were several occasion’s where the opposing winger left the Argentine in the dust.

The manager was keenly aware of Rojo’s problems, as were supporters on Twitter.

Would happily take CBJ or Young over Rojo on the left side. Getting burned in defense and contributes little to the attack.
— Red Devil Armada (@RedDevilArmada1) April 3, 2016

Louis van Gaal recognized the problem and subsequently substituted him at half time. After the match, he explained his team changes to reporters, including the full-back change:

"“Daley Blind has played every match this season, more or less, and he is at the end of his strengths. I shall give him two days off this week, and then he is okay again. I think [Marcos] Rojo had a problem with his jet-lag, so I changed him. He came back [from international duty] on Thursday but I had to play him.”"

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It seems unlikely that Rojo actually suffered any problems from jet lag given the modernity of treatments for football trainers. More likely than not, Van Gaal was trying to cover for his player’s terrible outing. Regardless, Fosu-Mensah entered the fray at half time in replacement and had immediate effect.

With the introduction, Matteo Darmian moved to the left side and all but locked down Deulofeu. The manager made the correct decision in swapping the Italian to the opposite flank as he has far more pace than Fosu-Mensah. But the Dutch youth international capitalize on his opportunity to partner with Juan Mata on the right side.

It was his assist that led to the only goal. After clever build up play from Mata and a backheel from Marcus Rashford, Fosu-Mensah latched on to the flick and drove a ball across goal to the feet of Anthony Martial. The Frenchman coolly slotted it home to give his side the advantage, with Fosu-Mensah getting credited the assist.

Commenting on the youngster’s performance, Van Gaal was sure to give the player all the credit:

"“I thought that there was a lot of space on the right wing in the first half, and after Tim took over, he did fantastically. I saw there was some space on the right side and I told Timothy he had to take advantage of that. And when the player does that, it’s a bit of luck for the manager, but every credit is for the player, for Timothy, and not for the manager.”"

Fosu-Mensah was just one of the younger players to shine for Manchester United on the day, as Martial and Rashford also had impressive matches.