Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal displayed a series of diagrams to journalists as he hit back at West Ham manager Sam Allardyce's claim that United are a long-ball team. "Because I expected this question, I have made an interpretation of the data for this game and then I have to say that it is not a good interpretation from Big Sam," said the Dutchman.
"You have to look at the data and then you will see that we did play long balls, but long balls wide rather than to the striker."
The statistics quoted in four A4 leaflets, which were put together by Van Gaal's analysts, claim West Ham sent a higher percentage of their long passes forward than the visitors during the match.
West Ham attempted 200 passes, according to the figures, and United 343.
The pamphlet said 71.1 per cent of West Ham's "long passes" - of over 25 metres - went forward whereas United's percentage was just 49.9 per cent.
Diagrams in the leaflets claim to show many of United's passes went sideways or diagonally, rather than forward.
However, the statistics used do show that Van Gaal's side played more long passes in total - 24.2% compared to 22.5%.
Van Gaal insisted his team only started launching balls forward after 6ft 4in Marouane Fellaini came on in the 76th minute of the draw in east London.
"When you have 60 per cent ball possession do you think that you can do that with long balls?" Van Gaal added.
