Loius van Gaal’s Pre-Season Strategy Explained

As Manchester United begin training at Carrington today, manager Louis van Gaal speaks of his pre-season strategy designed to prepare his squad for the beginning of the 2015-16 season.

Manchester United are scheduled to play four games in the United States as a part of their pre-season training and Van Gaal has chalked up a strategy that shall best equip him with a squad of fit footballers that understand one another. United shall play Club America in Seattle on July 17, San Jose Earthquakes in San Jose on July 21, European champions Barcelona in Santa Clara on July 25 and PSG in Chicago on July 28.

Loius van Gaal shall ease his players who are fresh of their holidays. In his words, “In the first two matches I will play all the players at the most for 45 minutes because we have to adapt to our new situation.”
United’s rich crop of youth will also get the opportunity to impress during United’s pre-season tour. Van Gaal, renowned for noticing the talents of various players like Xavi Hernandez and Thomas Muller, is believed to have identified certain players from his youth pool who are ready to take the next step into Premier League football.

“A lot of young players have the possibility to step into the matches.”

“The Barcelona and PSG games are the third and fourth games and at that point we will play with certain players for 60 minutes and 30 minutes, it will also be good to see where we stand then against the level of those kinds of teams” , said Van Gaal when asked about the importance of facing quality teams during pre-season.

Loius van Gaal also insists that the first game of the season is what actually matters and their pre-season tour is aimed at ensuring that players are back to full fitness before the commencement of the new season. He also doesn’t set much store by the club’s pre-season performance.

“It can also say nothing about that (the team’s quality) because last year we won every game with big figures, good results, and attractive football. For me the most important match is the first game of the Premier League.”

Manchester United shall begin their campaign against Tottenham Hotspurs on the 8th of August.