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Football

21st Sep 2015

Louis van Gaal explains the tactical rationale behind taking Matteo Darmian off at half-time

The Tadic issue

Darragh Murphy

Problem spotted, problem solved.

Louis van Gaal has revealed just why he decided to give Matteo Darmian only 45 minutes of action during Manchester United’s 3-2 victory over Southampton on Sunday.

With the game finely poised at 1-1, the Dutchman felt that the Italian right-back wasn’t covering Saints midfielder Dusan Tadic enough in the first half so switched things up at the break.

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“He gave too much space to Tadic in my opinion,” Van Gaal said. “So that’s why I brought on Valencia.

“I didn’t see Tadic in the second half, did you? It was a tactical change because Tadic had a lot of space and was very dangerous for us.

“I wanted to eliminate that with Valencia and he did that very well I think.”