Louis van Gaal urges Manchester United fans to criticise him rather than his players for poor performances

There is growing discontent among the club's support at Van Gaal's preferred style of play

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal (Getty Images)

Louis van Gaal has defended his Manchester United players and urged fans to aim their anger towards him rather than his squad.

The Dutchman’s decision to replace Anthony Martial for Marouane Fellaini was roundly booed by the Old Trafford crowd during Tuesday night's 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow.

Sections of the support are becoming discontent with the sterile style of play on offer, with chants such as ‘We're Man United, we want to attack’ and ‘All we are saying is give us a goal’ being sang with increasingly regularity.

In his pre-match press conference before West Bromwich Albion’s visit, Van Gaal conceded that supporters are entitled to their opinion, but believes negativity is seeping through to the players.

"The supporters have to support the players otherwise they make it very difficult for the players to play at Old Trafford," the United manager said.

"I can only advise the fans to criticise the manager and not the players. It's very difficult to play for Manchester United with a lot of pressure and you can taste that in Old Trafford because of all the yelling, then it's not good for my players," Van Gaal added.

"Then it's better to whistle the manager, I can cope with it because I have had a lot of experience in my life as a manager."

Van Gaal also defended his team's performance in the win over CSKA - which followed three straight goalless draws - and insisted the fans should be proud of their team.

"I think we have attacked 85 minutes of the 90 so we have given a lot of entertainment,” he said.

"It is difficult to disorganise a team that has 10 people defending behind the ball, you have to take that into account always.

"When two teams are attacking it is more easy to score goals, that is why trainer coaches use these tactics against us.

"I didn't know (before) but I read the history of CSKA. They played last year against Manchester City at home and they won 2-1.

"Even in the golden age of Manchester United they could not win at home (against CSKA) so we have made history."

Following Tuesday's win, the impressive Jesse Lingard inadvertently let slip that Van Gaal had told the players to disregard criticism from the fans.

When asked what his manager had said during the half-time interval, Lingard candidly revealed: “Just to keep going and perform the same as the first half – be patient, ignore the fans and keep playing your own game.”

Additional reporting by PA