Louis van Gaal certainly blamed everything except himself for United’s dismal display.
Louis van Gaal was full of excuses for Manchester United’s 0-0 stalemate at League Two’s Cambridge United in the FA Cup 4th round.
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Indeed, the Dutch manager said “everything” was against his side and pointed the finger squarely at the pitch, the referee, basically anything bar his own choice of team and tactics, reports Times.
With that in mind, we look at some of the worst excuses offered up for shock results in football by managers and players that should really know a lot better.
New Stadium
Yes, following Arsenal move to the Emirates stadium, Arsene Wenger said his team’s bad start to the season could be put down to their new home ground.
“I personally put our bad start to the season down to the new stadium. We dropped some points that any team will drop when they move to a new stadium. It is linked with the unfamiliarity, as well as the fact that a team that comes to the stadium has no bad memories.”
Yeah, probably not because you let all your experienced heads leave and flood the team with youth players.
The Away Strip
Ferguson himself could dominate this list with some of the incredible reasons for defeat he has come out with over the years.
Perhaps most ridiculously, however, was when he made his side change their away strip at half time when losing 3-0 to Southampton.
“The manager just stormed in and said: ‘Get that kit off, you’re getting changed,’ says Lee Sharpe. “Those were the first words he said at half-time… we certainly never played in it again.”
Lasagne-gate
A dubious choice of evening meal was the reason given for Spurs defeat to West Ham on the final day of the season in 2006 which denied Tottenham a Champions League spot at the expense of their most hated rivals Arsenal.
Ten players went down with illness after the squad ate at the Marriott hotel in West India Quay the night before.
Heavy shirts
Then Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes blamed his side’s 1971 FA Cup Final defeat to Arsenal on the weight of their shirts saying the wall used was ‘too heavy’.
Too cold
Manuel Pellegrini said the chilly climes of Moscow was the reason for his side’s inability to hold onto their 2-0 win against CSKA.
“We played very well in the first half, but maybe it was too cold in the second half.”
Ghost of Lord Nelson
Letting slip a two goal lead in a match with Bradford City in 1996, Blackpool blamed the ghost of Lord Nelson haunting their boardroom for their screw up.
Playstation
David James once tried to blame the reason he conceded three howlers against Newcastle United on his inability to put down his Playstation.
“I was getting carried away playing Tekken II and Tomb Raider for hours on end.”
How very 90s.
And perhaps the best of all…
“I didn’t see it.” – Arsene Wenger
Such a well known and ridiculed excuse, Wenger’s been using it so long that the Daily Mirror even compiled a list of his ten best uses of it.