Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has claimed that his side did not deserve to lose their Premier League clash with West Bromwich Albion this afternoon.
The Red Devils saw their run of four consecutive wins in all competitions come to an end at The Hawthorns as Salomon Rondon scored the only goal of the game after Juan Mata had earlier been sent off.
Van Gaal admitted that his side did not do enough to take all three points themselves, but believes that a draw would have been the fairest result.
"I think always this match has an influence on the next match so it is, for us, very bad. It is a bad moment and it wasn't in my opinion a necessary loss," Van Gaal told reporters.
"I don't want to say that we deserved to win, no, but we don't deserve to lose. When you see at the end the chances that West Bromwich Albion has created in comparison with us, it was an unnecessary loss.
"When it is a draw and you play 60 minutes with 10 men, you can accept it - but now you lose and you lose contact with the first four or five."
The defeat leaves United sixth in the Premier League table, still three points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.
Barney Corkhill
