Andreas Pereira ‘only highlght’ for Manchester United as Louis van Gaal rips team for tour match

Louis van Gaal criticised his players on Tuesday following a 3-1 pre-season win over San Jose Earthquakes in California, calling them flatly 'very bad'.

Andreas Pereira of Manchester United celebrates after scoring a goal against San Jose Earthquakes in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday in California. Josh Edelson / AFP / July 21, 2015

Louis van Gaal criticised new signing Bastian Schweinsteiger and his Manchester United teammates after the Premier League giants eased to a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.

United recorded a second straight victory on their US tour and never really looked troubled against their mid-table opponents from Major League Soccer.

Juan Mata and man-of-the-match Memphis Depay scored first half goals for United before Brazilian youngster Andreas Pereira added a third in the second half.

But United coach Van Gaal was furious at the performance of his team after the break when he made 10 changes, including the introduction of Schweinsteiger.

“The first half I was satisfied – the players have performed what we wanted in the defensive organisation, and they have created a lot of chances, 10, and they scored two goals so I was satisfied,” Van Gaal said.

“But the second half I thought we played very bad – a lot of ball losses, very unnecessary. The only highlight was the goal from Pereira.

“We didn’t give many chances away but we gave possibilities away.

“It was a threat always and that was not necessary.

“Our positions in midfield were not so good as in the first half.”

Asked to assess the performance of new signing Schweinsteiger, Van Gaal didn’t mince his words.

“He was also bad,” the Dutchman said, warning it would take time for the German World Cup-winner to settle in at United after arriving from Bayern Munich.

“Players can play bad, certainly when you have only three days or six days training session in your legs and you have to play 45 minutes.

“Everybody can think it is easy to step in but it is not easy. I thought the first match (Schweinsteiger) played very well and now he played bad but that is also a process.”

Van Gaal however would have drawn encouragement from the display of Depay, who completed a £25 million (Dh142.9m) move to Old Trafford in June.

With former United manager Alex Ferguson amongst an 18,000-capacity sell-out at San Jose’s Avaya Stadium, Unite, despite Van Gaal’s critique, made efficient work of their overmatched MLS opponents.

United will play European champions Barcelona in their match of the International Champions Cup exhibition tournament on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

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