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Manchester United news: Top four more important than FA Cup semi-final, admits Louis van Gaal

Players will not be rested in Wednesday's match with Crystal Palace, despite FA Cup meeting at Wembley with Everton on Saturday 

Mark Ogden
Tuesday 19 April 2016 16:27 BST
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Louis van Gaal has ruled out resting players against Crystal Palace in an effort to boost Manchester United’s hopes of winning Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Everton after claiming his team cannot afford to waste the opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal in the race for the top four.

United face Palace at Old Trafford on Wednesday, 24 hours head of Arsenal’s home game against West Bromwich Albion, knowing that a victory will move them to within one point of Arsene Wenger’s faltering side.

And although Saturday’s clash with Everton at Wembley offers United the chance to reach their first FA Cup Final since 2007, Van Gaal believes that closing the gap on Arsenal is now the priority.

“It is much more important for us to win than Arsenal or Manchester City because they have the gap,” Van Gaal said. “So Crystal Palace is too important a game for us to rotate for the semi-final. We have to win.

“We have to look to ourselves. We have to win, otherwise we cannot close the gap because they (Arsenal) have four points more.

“You can only give pressure by winning and win have to win for ourselves.

“The most important thing is to beat Crystal Palace, so it is not appropriate to think about Everton.

“If we don’t win, the gap is too big with the games we have left to play."

Van Gaal has talked about wanting to rest Marcus Rashford

He continued: “I always have an eye on the schedule of my team and look if the load is not an overload.

“I have done that all season, but we have had a lot of injuries, so I haven’t rotated so much.

“But this game against Palace is very important and we need to win and have to win.”

United can collect fifteen points from their remaining five games and Van Gaal admits his team may have to win all five to qualify for the Champions League.

“I cannot predict, but it is a competitive league, which is why our rivals are also losing,” Van Gaal said. “A lot of teams are losing and we have to look at our final five games and winning them.”

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