Louis van Gaal fiercely defended Marouane Fellaini after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Leicester City, insisting that the Belgian’s elbow on Robert Huth was a ‘normal reaction’.
The Reds’ top-four hopes took a severe blow, after Wes Morgan’s header cancelled out Anthony Martial’s early opener at Old Trafford.
However, the main talking point from the game was Fellaini’s attempted elbowing of Huth, after the German defender appeared to have been pulling the midfielder’s hair in an off-the-ball incident.
The Football Association may take disciplinary action against Fellaini, but Van Gaal defended the Belgian international and insisted that United should have been given a penalty for the incident.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, he said, while demonstrating Huth’s pull on reporter Patrick Davidson:
When you look at what Huth is doing with Fellaini, that’s a penalty. Shall I grab your hair? What is your reaction, when I grab your hair? Your hair is much shorter than Fellaini, but when I do that, what are you doing then?
I think that’s a normal reaction. Every human being who is grabbed by the hair, only with sex masochism, then it is allowed but not in other situations. They did it. They did it several times I think.
I have to first pick Huth because he was the guy who grabbed the hair of Fellaini. I think the reaction of Fellaini is like a human being.
On the result, Van Gaal said that United deserved more from playing ‘one of their best games of the season:
We deserved more, we were the better team but we didn’t score. I think we played one of the best matches of this season and it was significant that the fans were applauding a draw. Normally they are not applauding a draw but they were applauding because this was an exciting game.
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