United front: Van Gaal has defended his omission of Radamel Falcao
Louis Van Gaal has warned his Manchester United players he is “not
interested” in them if they do not accept his managerial methods. The Dutchman laid down the law after defending his treatment of striker Radamel Falcao, who he has held back until he proves himself fit enough to play.
Falcao
will not start the Premier League encounter at Southampton because Van
Gaal does not consider the Colombian to be at the level he requires to
play for him.
A loan signing on the final day of the summer
transfer window, Falcao was out of action from January to August with a
cruciate knee ligament injury, and has just returned from a six-week
lay-off with a calf problem.
Van Gaal and his medical staff at United want to be sure Falcao is 100 per cent before allowing him to start games.
“I’m not interested,” said Van Gaal, when asked if Falcao was frustrated by his treatment.
“He has to follow my philosophy. Do you understand that? Yes, I’m here because of that.” In pictures: Manchester United vs Stoke VIEW GALLERY
Although Van Gaal’s irritation was directed at Falcao, the warning applies to all of United’s squad, with the manager reinforcing the point that players must fall in line with his approach or be left out in the cold.
United paid a £6million loan fee to secure Falcao from Monaco, with the option to buy him for £43.2m at the end of this season.
But
with just three starts and four sub appearances for United, and a
solitary goal, it would appear time is running out for Falcao to prove
he is worthy of a permanent deal.
His failure to prove his fitness
and get a run of games has clearly irked Van Gaal, who gave James
Wilson, 19, a start ahead of the 28-year-old for United’s victory over Stoke.
“Yes,
it’s match fitness,” added Van Gaal, when pushed on Falcao’s continued
omission. “I will clarify it with more facts. He has trained two days
after the Stoke match. We had the match on Tuesday, when he played for
15 minutes.
“Then we had the training sessions after Tuesday. But
before Tuesday, we didn’t train. We trained the box exercise and that is
not a full training session.
“Because we had to play again within
two days of the Hull game last week, I have to have a recovery session,
so I cannot train him.
PA
Cameo: Falcao played just 15 minutes against Stoke
“After Tuesday, I can train him and we trained very well on
Wednesday, but then Thursday they are off. I can say to him train but,
no, we have trained before that.
“So he has trained in two
training sessions which I think is a contribution. A bigger
contribution is to play in the second team for 45, 60 or even 90
minutes – what Jonny Evans has done – but I couldn’t do that as Wayne
Rooney was also injured.
“I have to adapt to the needs of the
squad. Falcao can only play 20 minutes on that level because the rhythm
of the Premier League is the highest.”
Van Gaal has been boosted by the return of Rooney, with the United skipper having missed his side’s win over Stoke with a knee injury, but Angel Di Maria remains sidelined and is unlikely to figure.
Although United are going for a fifth straight league win, Van Gaal said his side had regressed against Stoke, following their 3-0 win over Hull.
He admitted: “I was very pleased with Hull, but against Stoke it was not so good.
“So,
within three days, there was a big difference and we are looking for
consistency. We have to dominate more, like we did against Hull.”
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