Louis van Gaal admitted that a 1-1 draw was as much as his Manchester United team deserved at Stoke City on New Year’s Day.
Radamel Falcao’s left-footed finish from close range midway through the first half cancelled out an early Ryan Shawcross goal, but it was the Potters who came closest to a winner with Peter Crouch later hitting the post.
“It was a draw and I don’t think we deserved more,” Van Gaal told Sky Sports. “They were closer to the goal than we were.
“We have seen that it is a difficulty for us to defend long balls and we have also seen that in the home game against Stoke City.
“We had a lot of time and space to build up. In the second half it was a little bit better but we didn’t create so much because the crosses were also not so good and normally they are much better.”
United’s defence looked uncomfortable in the blustery conditions, with Mame Biram Diouf spurning a chance to double the lead after dispossessing Jonny Evans following a long ball.
But Van Gaal offered little excuse. Referring to the wind, he added: “The opponent also has that problem but they are more used to that and they are also playing long balls, which is then a little bit more easy.
“But nevertheless we have got the space and time to play football and we could have played better today.”
Aerial strength
Stoke’s second-minute goal came from a corner that Crouch knocked down for Shawcross to force home and Van Gaal was confused by the defending given the striker’s famed aerial strength.
“You know that that is happening,” he said. “We have had two meetings about that.
“We know that Crouch is doing that and we know that it is not always at the goal but at the second player and they were totally free without any opponent in the neighbourhood, so that was very bad.
“But it was also good that we kept the spirit and we equalised. We have to play better in away matches because in my opinion there is no difference between the away matches and the home matches. The fans from United today were loud and fantastic so we need to do better.”
One concern for Van Gaal was a second-half injury to Ashley Young that saw Rafael having to replace him with the wing-back leaving the field clutching his hamstring.
Van Gaal revealed Young could be out for "many weeks" but added: "I'm not a doctor so we have to wait for tomorrow or the day after."