{"id":91326,"date":"2015-02-13T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=91326"},"modified":"2015-02-13T16:50:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T16:50:09","slug":"louis-van-gaal-not-worried-scholes-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=91326","title":{"rendered":"Louis van Gaal not worried by Scholes criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is not worried by criticism of his team’s style of play from former Old Trafford favourite Paul Scholes.<\/p>\n

Ex-midfielder Scholes said United’s football was “miserable” and failing the club’s attacking traditions.<\/p>\n

He wrote in the Independent:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> “At the moment I’m struggling to watch Van Gaal’s team with any great enjoyment.”<\/p>\n

But Van Gaal replied: “I don’t worry about that. Paul Scholes is one of the fans and fans can criticise us.”<\/p>\n

Scholes had also accused current United players for being too safe.<\/p>\n

“To beat opposing teams you have to attack – and to attack you have to take risks,” wrote the former England international. “Too few of the players in the current team are prepared to take those risks.”<\/p>\n

United sit third in the Premier League after Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Burnley at Old Trafford, a display which Van Gaal “didn’t like”.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman had earlier defended his tactics after West Ham rival Sam Allardyce called his side “long-ball United”.<\/p>\n

Former players, including Phil Neville, a team-mate of Scholes at United, and ex-Arsenal and West Ham striker John Hartson, have also criticised United’s displays as “really poor”, “predictable” and “lacking pace”.<\/p>\n

Scholes, who made his United debut in 1994, playing 676 times and winning 11 Premier League titles, contrasted the team’s current style with the tactics adopted by his ex-boss Sir Alex Ferguson.<\/p>\n

The Salford-born footballer added: “In the periods of my career when I stopped passing the ball forward, or when I stopped looking for the risky pass that might open up a defence, the consequences were the same. The manager stopped picking me.<\/p>\n

“I got back into the team when I went back to doing it the way he wanted.<\/p>\n

“United’s history was built on attacking football, which does not always mean that the team kept clean sheets or did not concede chances.<\/p>\n

“Why do you think United have had some of the best goalkeepers in the world over the years? They needed them because the team committed so many players forward.”<\/p>\n

West Ham boss Allardyce said he had never seen a United side “hoofing” the ball forward after the teams drew 1-1 at Upton Park last Sunday.<\/p>\n

But Van Gaal disputed the assertion at a news conference on Monday and presented a dossier to back up his claims.<\/p>\n

United play at Preston in the FA Cup on Monday with Van Gaal describing striker Robin van Persie as a doubt for the fifth-round tie with a knock.<\/p>\n

Defender Phil Jones is unlikely to feature after picking up a knee injury during the win over Burnley, while midfielder Daley Blind is to be assessed after a head injury.<\/p>\n

\"Statistics<\/p>\n

Statistical analysis given out by Manchester United at Monday’s news conference<\/p>\n

\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is not worried by criticism of his team’s style of play from former Old Trafford favourite Paul Scholes. Ex-midfielder Scholes said United’s football was “miserable” and failing the club’s attacking traditions. He wrote in the Independent:\u00a0 “At the moment I’m struggling to watch Van Gaal’s team with any great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-91326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}