Louis van Gaal wants all team to Score Goals
Dutchman Louis van Gaal has stated that he does not need his strikers to be the only source of goals in the Manchester United team. The media have been critical of players like Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie in the last few weeks, while Radamel Falcao looks like one of the worst buys of the season.
The Colombian is only on a loan deal – which cost United around £ 6 million in fees alone – till the end of the campaign, but his return of just four league goals is unlikely to impress United into paying the remaining £ 43 million agreed at the start of the campaign.
United have three main striker’s on-board – Falcao, Rooney, and van Persie – but they have contributed only on goal since the start of February. This poor return has led to many questioning the tactics of Van Gaal. The Dutchman has frequently altered the tactics and personnel in the past few months. This is widely different from the Sir Alex Ferguson era when United rarely made changes to the tactics and it was only after the midweek Champions League when Ferguson made changes to the team. Van Gaal has responded to the criticism by saying that he does not rely only upon the strikers for the goals.
“I am not a usual coach, it doesn’t matter for me who is scoring the goals. I also said that in the beginning of the season when you criticised my defenders. No, it is not the defenders, it is the team.The defence begins with the attackers and the attack begins with the defenders who have to build up so that we come in the third, fourth phase. I am very happy that, for instance, Chris Smalling scored two goals against Burnley when he came on,” said Van Gaal.