Did we touch a nerve? Van Gaal takes umbrage to 'long ball' claim

  • by Staff Writer
  • Tuesday, 10th February 2015

Sam Allardyce's cheeky reference to last weekend's opponents as 'long ball United' may have raised a few smiles amongst Hammers fans - although Manchester United's Louis Van Gaal was far from impressed by the tag.

The under-pressure Dutch manager was so incensed by Allardyce's jibe that he arrived at a press conference today armed with sheets of data designed to counter Big Sam's claims - which were the subject of the first question asked of the 63-year-old.

"When a colleague of mine is saying this kind of thing then you have to put the data in the right context," he said. "I think the media is also coming to the match and you have a lot of opinions about me.

"You have to look at the data and then you will see that we did play long balls, but long balls wide, rather than to the striker. A ball to the forward striker is mainly caused by long-ball play.

"Because I expected this question, I have made an interpretation of the data for this game and then I have to say that it is not a good interpretation from Big Sam.

"I am sorry, but we are playing ball possession play and after 70 minutes we did not succeed, in spite of many chances in the second half, so I changed my playing style. Then, of course, with the quality of Fellaini we played more forward balls and we scored from that, so I think it was a very good decision of the manager.

"But, when you see the overall long ball percentage, West Ham have played 71 per cent of their long balls to the forwards and we 49. When you have 60 per cent ball possession you cannot play long balls.

"So again, they did it 71 and we 49, and I give it you, you can copy it and then maybe you can go to Big Sam and he will get a good interpretation."

According to stats site Who Scored, Manchester United enjoyed 57 per cent possession to West Ham's 43 per cent during Sunday's match, which ended 1-1 - making a total of 414 passes to the Hammers' 284.

Whilst West Ham made 57 long passes, Manchester United made 86 - regardless of the direction. Additionally 49 of West Ham's passes were played aerially, compared to 65 from Manchester United.

West Ham made a total of 226 forward passes compared to the Red Devils' 316 - playing the ball back 105 times, in contract to the visitors' 152 passes toward their own goal.


One of the documents produced by Man Utd to 'prove' they played fewer long balls than West Ham during Sunday's 1-1 draw at the Boleyn


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