Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal is unhappy with his players despite their 3-1 victory over San Jose Earthquakes in a pre-season friendly, with the manager reserving particular criticism for new recruit Bastian Schweinsteiger.
“He was also bad,” the coach began, as reported by Sky Sports, when asked about the German international’s performance.
“Players can play bad, certainly when you have only three days or six days training session in your legs and you have to play 45 minutes,” he continued.
“Everybody can think it is easy to step in but it is not easy. I thought the first match (Schweinsteiger) played very well and now he played bad but that is also a process.”
The manager criticised his players for failing to retain possession.
“[In] the second half I thought we played very bad – a lot of ball losses, very unnecessary,” the manager continued.
“The only highlight was the goal from Pereira,” he concluded, “we didn’t give many chances away but we gave possibilities away. It was a threat always and that was not necessary.”
Despite van Gaal’s unhappiness, the United players still secured a victory against the Major League Soccer outfit.
Juan Mata—who was much improved for the Red Devils last season—opened the scoring, before Memphis Depay scored his first United goal with a first-half effort.
Youngster Andreas Pereira guaranteed victory in the second period after Fatai Alashe had halved United’s lead with an unexpected response.
Van Gaal has rarely been shy about criticising his big-name players, and during his time with Bayern Munich, star man Franck Ribery occasionally found himself the subject of some firm words from the experienced manager [L’Equipe].
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Schweinsteiger played alongside the Frenchman at Bayern, before swapping Bavaria for Old Trafford in the summer, moving to United on a £14 million deal [ESPN].
It remains to be seen who van Gaal will plump for as his first-choice pairing this season, with Schweinsteiger set to compete in the heart of the midfield with the likes of Daley Blind, Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera and another new signing, Morgan Schneiderlin.