David de Gea is at a loss to explain the difference between Manchester United's Premier League and UEFA Champions League form. The outgoing champions have suffered six defeats in front of their own supporters in the top flight as their title defence faltered badly under new manager David Moyes. But the Red Devils have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and drew 1-1 at home to holders Bayern Munich on Tuesday night in the first leg of their last-eight clash to maintain their hopes of progress. Recent home defeats at the hands of Manchester City and Liverpool were particularly galling for goalkeeper De Gea and his team-mates. And while the Spaniard admitted the setbacks demanded a response, he is unsure why there is a disparity between their domestic and continental displays. De Gea said: "It's hard to say why. There's no particular reason for it. "But we've certainly played better and been more consistent in Europe than in the league. "They're two different competitions and things haven't gone well in the league, but the Champions League is a special competition, the team have done well. "It's been quite a tough period for us in the league and we were down after the defeats to Liverpool and (Manchester) City. "But we are United and we must lift ourselves and fight. "This is a big club and at difficult moments is when you stand up and show people how big you are." http://www1.skysports.com/football/...avid-de-gea-cannot-explain-difference-in-form -------------- Its clear I think that what we see here is the managers tactical European genius Or the players putting themselves in the European shop window
The players have all won the title, and most of them have a hatful of PL medals, so have less motivation to perform in the league. Only a few of them have won the CL so the hunger is still there. Without a manager of SAF's calibre it was always going to be hard to convince players with five or more PL winners medals to give it their all in every game.
Sort of agree, but they only care about the CL because they only have a chance of winning the CL, for players like Rio Vidic Carrick RvP Evra Giggs it's the last chance probably. You've had bad starts before just this time you never got on a run under Moyes as you probably would have under Fergie, the players haven't given a ****e about the league for 2 months. You only got this far cos the league was over for you in November