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Louis van Gaal has criticised his players' creativity against Liverpool after Manchester United could only muster one shot on target during their Europa League defeat at Anfield.

A Daniel Sturridge penalty and a second-half strike from Roberto Firmino was enough to give Jurgen Klopp's side a 2-0 first-leg advantage. In response, United could only manage one shot on target from Morgan Schneiderlin that barely tested Simon Mignolet.

Van Gaal was quick to credit Liverpool's defence for limiting United's chances. But he also admitted his team had not created enough in the final third.

He said: "I don't think that we were in the third and fourth phase very creative. But it is also the defence of Liverpool and you can also give the credit for that to Liverpool.

"We have to improve a lot to create more goals. Okay, one shot, but we also had headers, not in the goal but outside the goal."

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