Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal says defeat at Sunderland came due to a lack of possession.

Keeping up his 'if we have the ball, they can't score' approach, Van Gaal says failure to maintain possession was reason for the loss.

“We didn't keep the ball in our team. For example against Chelsea we did do it and that is a big difference because you can control the game. We created chances in the second half, we could have scored also but that is not the problem. I think as Manchester United you have to keep the ball in spite of the pressure of Sunderland and create chances. We didn't have control in the second half. We didn't have control in the first 20 minutes, we had control in the second 20 minutes and we scored.

"Two set plays, two goals. We know in advance that they could score from set plays. They have a taller team, we have to organise it well but the main reason is that always in a match you shall be compared with your opponent in aggression. I think they played with more aggression because they play with direct balls so second balls are very important to win. We didn't keep the ball too much in our possession. These kinds of matches you have to win, I said that in advance, and we didn't do that."