Manchester United players stay at The Lowry hotel the night before matches as part of Louis van Gaal’s pre-match preparation.

The manager has revealed how great team spirit is amongst the camp, but all the players except one getting together to watch El Clasico together on Saturday night.

We went to the Lowry, we had a screen so I could watch the second half and 17 players of 18 were there. I have never experienced that before. We have a lot of Spaniards! I won’t tell you which one wasn’t there. It was the quality of the game – Real Madrid vs Barcelona. I told the players, “You have seen what they have done because for example, Barcelona under Gerardo Martino pressed from the front, but under Luis Enrique it is from behind”. Real Madrid pressed from behind, they drop in and they were very compact. After Real scored the second, the match was over because Barcelona don’t keep compact. That was the deadly.




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