BY TIM PARSONS
Former England player, Paul Scholes has launched a damning verdict of Manchester United under Louis van Gaal.
The Old Trafford legend pulled back no punches in his criticism of his former side, who were reliant on an Anthony Martial header to secure a 1-1 draw with CSKA Moscow on Wednesday.
Scholes, who has always been vocal about his views of United since Van Gaal took charge, told BT Sport: “You look at the United team, there is no quality, no movement. People are not running.
“Is it the way they are told to play?“It’s all safety playing across the pitch. I can’t remember a pass in to Wayne Rooney. There is no movement.
“You’ve got midfield players who can run – Ander Herrera, Jesse Lingaard, Anthony Martial – stick the ball in to Rooney and run, but there’s not one of them even thinking of running.”
“Before the game you take the point but when you watch Manchester United you expect them to be better.
“You expect them to be more creative. You expect players to run with pace and penetration.“There is a lack of creativity. You would think that with (Bastian) Schweinsteiger and (Ander) Herrera the quality should be there.”
Manchester United gave a poor showing in the first half with most of their stars looking lost and unable to deliver any star quality for their team. Experienced Wayne Rooney looked more a novice than an international player, barely touching the ball. Bayern midfielder, Morgan Schweinstager struggled badly at midfield, and did not look any bit of the £14.5m he is meant to be worth. He was however involved in some quality passing that culminated in the equaliser, but apart from that he looked more like an amateur player than a professional star. And 21 year old winger, Memphis Depay, showed little attacking strength for one voted best young player in 2015, after being part of the Netherland under 21 team who won the European championships.
CONFIDENT
However, the Manchester United boss remains confident that his team can qualify from Champions League Group B despite the 1-1 draw at CSKA Moscow.
His team are second in the group after winning only one of their opening three games and host CSKA and PSV Eindhoven before travelling to leaders Wolfsburg.
“We are very strong at home and I hope we can win these games so we are nearly qualified or qualified,” he said.
“We are on schedule after the PSV defeat, which was strange for us.”
Anthony Martial’s header in the second half of the game earned a draw for United, ironically compensating his team for the 19-year-old forward’s handball which had led to a first-half CSKA penalty. Even though David de Gea saved the spot-kick from Roman Eremenko, but CSKA’s top scorer Seydou Doumbia reacted first to turn in the rebound. Man United boss described the handball as ”a present”, but stopped short of criticizing the teenager fir the handball, probably because £36m youngster helped keep their chances alive. ”He is a human being, he said, he reacts, and it is stupid, but sometimes these things will happen. It’s the first time it has happened, before ungrammatically adding, if it’s happening always with me, it is a pity”.But he was not affected at half time, so I was very happy with his performance. The manager admitted that his team lacked tempo in the first half and said he brought on Marouane Fellani to replace Bastian SAcheinsteiger at half time, with Memphis Depay introduced in place of Ligard with 10 minutes left. When asked whether Martial would have been better suited to a striker’s role, he replied ”I don’t have that idea because it is not the problem of a striker that we don’t have the chances in the first half.
What does he mean by ”I don’t have that idea”? He was being asked for his opinion, and he replies ”I don’t have that idea”? He meant to say that he does not know, but if a manager can’t even construct his sentences properly, it may raise questions of his general competence, after all it is the same mind he uses to answer questions that he uses to guide and manage a team. And being dutch is no excuse because he can still speak English- we are not talking about his accent here, but rather the way he basically expresses himself in a language he understands reasonably well. ”It was slow in my opinion, and that’s what I said half time-that we have to improve in switching the game from side to side. We have done that better in the second half(he means we did that better in the second half), we created more chances, but in the end it is a deserved draw”. The dutch manager needs to be faster in his thinking and responses, and perhaps he will produce a more effective team.
