Like Sir Alex Ferguson towards the end of his career, Louis van Gaal is rarely found on the touchline. He has today explained that he can’t get his message across to his players during the game, especially thanks to the noise at Old Trafford, but exception circumstances following Chris Smalling’s red card meant he was required to give instructions to his players.

I am always on the bench because my philosophy is that we have to prepare our players to play the match and when you are shouting on the sideline, there is nobody you can contact during the game – especially when we are home at Old Trafford. But at that time when I was at the sideline , it was because of the red card for Chris Smalling and I had to readjust our system. That is why I was there, but normally I am never there.