Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal admits he's spent the international break agonising over their defeat at Arsenal.
United go to Everton later today.
“We are always evaluating ourselves and we cannot accept that," van Gaal told reporters. "Not only the members of the staff, but also the players cannot accept that from each other because we want to be the champion - so you have to behave like a champion. You have to improve yourself so that in the future you can be the champion. You have to improve every time, which is what I am saying.
“I have analysed over the two weeks and that is awful when you have such a result! You cannot manage it with your players and that is what you have to do as a manager, but all your players are flying out [on international duty]. Especially the last game, because we played on Sunday, they flew out directly after the match.
“Then the players are coming back on Wednesday and also yesterday, like Romero and Valencia. They arrived after the training sessions so they could not participate in our meetings before the game against Everton. It is difficult for me as I still have to speak about the match against Arsenal because you have to analyse and learn from it and improve. I have to evaluate myself and how I prepared the players.
"I changed the sequence of preparation because I gave them Friday off, for example, and that is also an influence. Then I had to play 11 versus 11 [in training] one day before the game and give the analysis of Arsenal also one day before the game."
Expanding on his point, van Gaal continued: “We went by aeroplane for example when last year we went by train. But the biggest difference was the start of the game. Arsenal had an accuracy of passes that was 96 per cent and that's what Manchester United usually have. I think we had 68 per cent and our overall average was 85 per cent or higher I believe - that is a big difference. After a quarter we had already 90 per cent, but it was already 3-0 and we had lost the game.
“We have spoken about this and that it can't happen again. That is important but it is also difficult. We started so badly and Arsenal were so good, and maybe that's a coincidence but I don't believe in that. I believe in preparation, in focus and in imagination. We have communicated that and spoken to a lot of players, so we have had two busy days."
