Louis van Gaal blames Paul Scholes for fans' unrest

Van Gaal has had to contend with claims about his side’s ‘boring’ style of play this season

Manchester United manager Loius van Gaal has urged United fans to make up their own minds while judging the team’s performances and not pay heed to the opinions of pundits. The Dutch manager believes that the United faithful were influenced by the comments of Paul Scholes who has been vocal about his criticism regarding the tactics employed by the gaffer.

Van Gaal was seen expressing his thoughts after Manchester United’s 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday with goals from youngster Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata.

The Red Devils went into Saturday’s game on the back of three successive top-flight games without scoring and the fans made their frustrations heard after the narrow win over CSKA Moscow midweek in their Champions Leagues fixture. Repeated chants of ‘attack’, ‘attack’ could be heard from the Stratford end as the team laboured their way to a 1-0 win over the Russian club.

However, during the weekend’s win over West Brom there was just a solitary instance when similar chants were heard and this has pleased the manager. He opined that the supporters should not just fall in line with what Paul Scholes had to say about United’s style of play.

"I was pleased how they reacted against CSKA Moscow because you have to accept that fans have their own opinion but I think they were very influenced by Paul Scholes and all the criticism and what the media has written about that and then you to have to analyse the game also against CSKA Moscow," the United manager said.

"And when you are yelling 'attack, attack, attack' when you are 85 minutes attack, then you have to think by yourself as a fan: 'hey, is it all right to yell?' but they want to let them know that we have to score. Of course my mother knows that and my grandmother knows that."

Lingard is playing really well: Van Gaal

Van Gaal was also seemingly impressed with the performance of youngster Jesse Lingard in Saturday’s game. The 22-year-old Englishman put in a Man of the Match performance against West Brom where he opened the scoring for the home side with a sublime finish into the bottom corner from just outside the box.

He was a thorn in the flesh of the visitors throughout the game and put in a clinical display on United’s left flank.

"I put him in the line-up in the first game against Swansea City last season at home because he had impressed me already, but then he had a very heavy injury in that game so he needed to rehabilitate and that takes a long time," Van Gaal said.

"But I said in the beginning of the season I wanted to keep him and he had to wait for the moment that he was in better shape than his companions for the same position and since then he is playing I think he is playing very well."