Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has criticised Bastian Schweinsteiger’s performance during his side’s pre-season friendly fixture on Wednesday.
The Red Devils sealed a 3-1 victory over San Jose Earthquakes, which comes after their narrow 1-0 victory over Club America in the opening match of their trip to the United States.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager started with same 11 players for the clash on Wednesday. Schweinsteiger, who joined from Bayern came on the bench in the second half.
Before the break, Juan Mata and summer signing had given them a two goal cushion. The Earthquakes managed to score before the break, but it was Andreas Pereira’s second half header sealed the tie for the English giants.
Van Gaal heaped praise on the Brazilian attacker, but said Schweinsteiger played bad in the second pre-season friendly fixture.
“He [Schweinsteiger] was also bad. There was one highlight I think and that was Pereira,” Van Gaal said.
“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.
“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.”
Despite being a friendly tie, the Dutchman was very critical about his star signing of the transfer window. Schweinsteiger has won many accolades at his former club and was also an integral part of Germany’s World Cup winning campaign in 2014.
United fans will be hopeful that Schweinsteiger will bounce back with a performance when the new season starts.
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