Louis van Gaal would rather scrape an ugly 1-0 Wembley win over Crystal Palace today than leave the “prestigious temple” empty-handed. The Manchester United boss also believes winning the FA Cup is more important for the club and the Reds support it is for his managerial CV.
“Always your starting point is to impress and perform well,” he said. “That depends on a lot of factors, including your opponent. Then you get a fantastic match. Our starting point is to win well and score beautiful goals.
“But if we win 1-0 that is also enough. Winning is the most important thing in a final, otherwise you have nothing. “I have read the last FA Cup win was 2004. That’s a long time ago for Manchester United so this is a big title.
“A club like Manchester United needs silverware. We need it and the players need it. It is always important when you win silverware. It is important for the players. They can look and they can hold the cup and that is an exciting moment.
We can win something. We are very close but you have nothing if you don’t win. But we have to beat Crystal Palace and that is not so easy. They have a lot of quality. They have a lot of speed in their attack and on the counter attack.”