Manchester controlled the game throughout the entire 90 minutes and handled Shrewsbury Town with the utter most professionalism. Smalling – with a bit of luck, Mata and Lingard got United through the FA Cup where they will face West Ham. LVG was happy with the result just as the fans were. It was quite a while since they leaned over to shake the Dutchman’s hand. As the Telegraph reported, despite the positive outcome and overall, positive attitude, Van Gaal still sent some mixed messages after the match:

“I’m satisfied. I was feeling well before the match. It is true [that the first goal was lucky]. We have learned from Midtjylland. We think it was always offside so we have learned from them. We asked the Portuguese referee and he said it was OK. So we try it. Today we scored already. That is good, I think. The Midtjylland game is our chance to qualify that is why it is so important. [We are taking the season] day by day. It’s unbelievable [injuries to Borthwick-Jackson and Will Keane] the substitutes are injured. It is also the program. [the number of games].”

Maybe Van Gaal should be more positive as there were many good things to take from this 3-0 win against Shrewsbury. The most important is probably the fact that young players like Lingard and Martial show immense potential. All they need is experience, experience that starts building up with games like these. One other thing worth mentioning is the fact that the overall attitude of the players was not only professional but also quite pragmatic. If the team keeps it up, results are bound to come, especially knowing that the Europa League and the FA Cup are both achievable goals.

All-in-all, this was a good game for Manchester who go in the Midtjylland match with a good morale and a strong sense of redemption after what happened in Denmark.