Van Gaal unhappy with United start

30 August 2014 20:31

Louis van Gaal admits his winless Manchester United side have made a completely unacceptable start to the season.

United boss Van Gaal is still without a win after three Premier League matches following Saturday's uninspiring 0-0 draw at Burnley.

Van Gaal's misery was compounded by a calf injury to Angel di Maria, although the United manager stressed the British record signing's problem was not serious after the final whistle.

Despite the odd flash of invention from Di Maria, United looked flat all afternoon against the Premier League newcomers, whose wealth and trophy collection are far inferior to the 20-time English champions.

"When you have two points (out of) nine that is not good enough and that is disappointing," said Van Gaal, who also saw his team lose 4-0 to MK Dons on Tuesday in the Capital One Cup.

''The progress is there, but you have to win, a club like Manchester United have to win.''

Robin van Persie had a shot cleared off the line in the second half, but David de Gea was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers at Turf Moor.

The United goalkeeper was called into action on two occasions after woeful errors from Jonny Evans and Antonio Valencia and David Jones also rattled the crossbar for the hosts in the third minute.

Coming four days after the humiliating result at League One opposition, Van Gaal was in a glum mood post-match at Turf Moor.

"At the moment it's certainly not a world-class team, but we have to wait, and have belief that it will come," Van Gaal added.

Much has been made of United's defensive deficiencies over the past three weeks, but Van Gaal was unhappy with his strikers on Saturday.

"I think that in the first half we did the same thing as Burnley, we fought," he said.

"You have to play the ball against teams like Burnley, we did that better in the second half and created chances.

"But you have to score from those chances, and we didn't do that. It's a disappointing result."

Van Persie, who lacked energy, communicated poorly with Wayne Rooney throughout. Van Gaal is sure his compatriot will soon be back to his best though.

"He played 60 minutes in his first game back, and 70 today, so I think it's a case of building up his game time," Van Gaal said.

"That's also frustrating, but that's part of football, because of the World Cup. It's a pity, but we have to do it because otherwise he wouldn't be fit."

One crumb of comfort for Van Gaal is that Di Maria's injury, which he suffered after a kick on the calf by Danny Ings, is not serious.

"It was a precaution," Van Gaal said when asked why he substituted the £59.7million man.

"Today, we didn't see the world-class player from Madrid, but you can't expect that yet.

"He has to adapt to the English culture and way of playing, but also to his fellow players. That needs time."

After losing his first two matches to Chelsea and Swansea, Burnley boss Sean Dyche was pleased to see his side get their first point on the board.

''I thought we were very productive first half, extremely productive against a very good side. Second half we started very brightly and as the game wore on they began to control it better and we just got on the back foot a little bit,' he said.

''Overall we are happy with a point, we can't be greedy, they're a very good side.

''I don't think there's a lack or organisation or energy to the team, it's that quality in the final third that wins you games and we were close again today.''

Source: PA