Stoke OUTCLASS bumbling Man Utd to have LVG on the brink
The pressure increased on Louis van Gaal after Manchester United lost 2-0 at Stoke City - their third on the bounce.
Van Gaal dropped skipper Wayne Rooney to the bench, replacing him with Ander Herrera. The United manager admitted before kickoff that Rooney was axed for "tactical reasons".
The change had little affect in the first-half, however, as Stoke City ran rampant.
Erik Pieters offered an early warning in the opening stages when he flashed a cross past David de Gea with Bojan Krkic stretching to reach it.
On 19 minutes, Stoke were front - thanks to a error from Memphis Depay. The Dutchman fluffed a header back to De Gea, which was pounced upon by Glen Johnson. The fullback squared the ball to Bojan Krkic, who thumped it past the United goalkeeper.
Six minutes later, Stoke were 2-0 ahead thanks to a wonder goal from the brilliant Marko Arnautovic. A Bojan free-kick was only half cleared by the United defence and Arnautovic, collecting possession, swiveled and fired home with a stunning drive.
Between time, Xherdan Shaqiri skinned Daley Blind twice, forcing Van Gaal to move the Dutchman to the right-side of United's defence.
The half ended with Blind slipping when trying to cross, leaving him on his backside and the butt of taunts from home fans.
Van Gaal threw Rooney on for the start of the second-half, bringing him on for Memphis.
The United captain introduced some much-needed aggression to the visitors' play and with Stoke sitting back, Rooney found himself on the end of two half chances before Marouane Fellaini forced Jack Butland into a wonder save on 63 minutes.
Stoke were happy to soak up United's pressure and almost had a third when Arnautovic was sent clear by Butland, but trod on the ball with Shaqiri available for a tap in.
Bojan then forced De Gea to a near post save before Butland easily dealt with Anthony Martial's effort at the other end.
The match petered out with United bereft of ideas and Stoke happily in control.
Summing up the game was Stoke fans' chants of "boring, boring" when United were in possession and "that's just embarrassing" when Martial was judged to have dived under challenge from Ryan Shawcross in the first-half.
