PASADENA, Calif. -- Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal opened up his tenure at the helm of United with a convincing 7-0 victory over the LA Galaxy.
Below is his postgame press conference after United's Chevrolet Cup win.
On Javier Hernandez not playing in the match:
“He arrived yesterday evening so he didn’t train. If you are not training, you will never be in the lineup. He was on holiday after the World Cup. Everybody at Manchester United has had three weeks but he was in the round of 16 against us [Holland]. You have to count 21 days and then he will join the team. I gave him permission to come directly from Mexico. He has to train, then he can play. He has to train for a week, then he can participate. He can play 45 minutes like the other players because the other players only trained three days.”
On starting off his career with Manchester United with a win:
“I think the result always matters because with such a result you gain confidence in the new system because we introduced a new system in the training sessions. We have played 11 v. 11 twice with the new system, which may not be that much, but the boys are willing to pick up all the information we have given them. They performed fantastic today.”
On the team’s performance:
“Last week I wasn’t at Manchester United and 10 players who played tonight were not at the training complex. When you see us train, you can expect something but not 7-0, that was also a surprise to me. They were all not just beautiful football goals but they were out of beautiful attacks.”
On the new system he is bringing to Manchester United:
“When you want to change a system you have to start at once because we don’t have time to prepare other things. The other system Man United can play is 4-3-3; they have played this system for many years. I can change this system when it doesn’t work. With the quality of the players I have I think we can play better with this system because we have four strikers. For example, when we play 4-3-3, then I have three strikers on the bench and I think that is not good. That is why I want to play with two strikers. Also, we have four number tens, so the selection is not balanced in my eyes. Because of that, I have decided to play in this system. Only because of the quality of the players, but when that doesn’t work I’ll change it to a 4-3-3.”
