Bastian Schweinsteiger was 'bad' in Manchester United's win over San Jose Earthquakes, admits Louis van Gaal

 

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Poor show: New recruit Schweinsteiger
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Vaishali Bhardwaj22 July 2015

Louis van Gaal has criticised Bastian Schweinsteiger's performance in Manchester United's pre-season victory over San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday after labelling the World Cup winner's showing as 'bad'.

United secured a 3-1 win over the MLS side at the Avaya Stadium thanks to goals from Juan Mata, Memphis Depay and Andreas Pereira as former Red Devils manager Sir Alex Ferguson watched on from the stands.

Van Gaal made wholesale changes at the break and brought on Schweinsteiger, who arrived at the club from Bayern Munich in a £15million deal earlier this month, for the second period.

But the Dutchman later admitted he was unimpressed with the 30-year-old midfielder's performance in the match.

"He was also bad," Van Gaal said. "The one highlight was Pereira."

"Players can play bad and certainly when you have only three days or six days training sessions in your legs and you have to play 45 minutes.

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"Everybody can say that it's easy to step in but it is not easy.

"I think the first match he played very well, and now he played bad. But that is also a process and certainly when you only have one week of training."

Van Gaal also questioned his team's second-half showing despite leading 2-1 after the break following Fatai Alashe's goal.

"The first half I was satisfied. The players want and have performed what we want," he added.

"The defensive organisation [was good] and they have created a lot of chances – 10 and they scored two goals, so I was satisfied. It can always be better, but I was satisfied.

"In the second half, I think we played very badly, a lot of ball losses, unnecessary, and the only highlight was the goal from Pereira and I think we don't give many chances away but we give possibilities away.

"It was a threat always and that was not necessary. Our positions in midfield were not so good as in the first half."

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