Diego Forlan: Exiting the Champions League hurts, but maybe it can help Manchester United

In his weekly column, Diego Forlan writes of the imperative facing Manchester United this year, the pain of getting knocked out of the Champions League and how it can be a blessing in disguise.

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal shown during his team's Champions League exit on Tuesday night. Carl Recine / Action Images / Reuters / December 8, 2015

Louis van Gaal needs to win the Premier League this season. Winning the FA Cup would buy him a bit more time, the Europa League, too, but if United won either of those competitions then they would still be under pressure to start next season well.

The clock has started ticking on the United manager. He is a successful coach with a great track record and that is why he was given the job, but he needs to win something at United soon.

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I understand why fans, who follow the team home and away, are disappointed, especially after Tuesday night’s Uefa Champions League exit at the group stage. They have seen United knocked out of the Champions League before the knockout stages before, but that is not what is expected. United are the biggest club in the world, they should be winning trophies or, at the least, competing for them. When that does not happen there is concern.

The team have not come close to winning a trophy since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. No finals, not even a semi-final, no exciting run-ins in the Premier League. It is all a bit flat and Manchester United should not be flat.

With United off the pace, they need to do something about it. Going out of the European Cup can help United focus on the league. When I was at the club, the priority was always the Champions League, then the Premier League. They were both very important, but had you asked a player which competition they would prefer to win, the European Cup would have edged it.

It is the hardest competition to win, the one where you need to beat the very best teams in Europe. United are nowhere close to being a side that can win the Champions League, so the Premier League and Europa League are more realistic targets. Domestic rivals are dropping points all the time in England, giving United, who are currently fourth in the table, a great chance to win a 21st league title. I thought Chelsea would comfortably win the league this year. How wrong was I?

United need to pull together. They need the fans behind them to help them get over the disappointment of the defeat at Wolfsburg on Tuesday. It can really make a difference to a player when you have had a setback and fans must remember that we are only in December, the season is not even at the halfway point.

Getting knocked out of a competition hurts. Two of the worst examples for me were in the semi-final of the Champions League.

The first was for United, against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002. We had drawn 2-2 at Old Trafford and I came off the bench with the score 1-1 in Germany. We were going out of the tournament on away goals. There were nine minutes left and Ferguson gave me a simple instruction: “Score, son.” One goal would have put us through to the final at Hampden Park in Glasgow, the manager’s home city. I was not nervous, despite only being at United three months and having yet to score.

With three minutes to play, I saw my chance: I stopped the ball with my chest on the edge of the area and had a great shot, really hard and on target. It beat the goalkeeper, Jorg Butt. It was going in and was going to be a beautiful goal. My first goal for United was going to get my new team into the final. Except Diego Placente, who I had played against in Argentina, headed it off the line, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hit the rebound over the bar. It was our last chance; we were out. I never saw a United dressing room as silent as that night.

The Champions League was a huge deal for United, as it is for all the big clubs. The defeat killed our season.

Four years later, a similar thing happened. I was at Villarreal when Arsenal knocked us out. That hurt. Once again, we were so near but so far. Our form dipped and we struggled, but both times were at the end of the season, United are not even halfway through the 2015/16 campaign. They should take the Europa League seriously; it is a good tournament to win. And I speak from experience, having won it with Atletico Madrid. It is a trophy and all fans love trophies.

United’s immediate concern should be putting together a run of wins in the Premier League to restore confidence to the players and the fans. That can be hard with young players, especially at United. Bringing inexperienced players into a successful winning team, as United did with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, is far easier than joining a team in transition. They can make mistakes, they have more margin for error and less pressure. That is not the case at United.

The team have stopped scoring, but United have the money to strengthen in January. Rival clubs might be reluctant to let players go, but if a striker is unhappy and wants more minutes, he can push for a move. Business can be done. Despite being less successful, despite the team not scoring so many goals and despite them being out of the Champions League, United remain a hugely attractive proposition for players.

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