Former United reserve captain Markus Neumayr returns with his thoughts on recent events.
Hi Markus, United have struggled in the opening games of the season, what have you made of the team’s performances?
In the first few games of the season you can see that United brought in a lot of quality into the team with the likes of Falcao, di Maria, Rojo etc. But it is also obvious that the team takes more time to find their style of play that Louis van Gaal wants to see. It is a different kind of football compared to David Moyes last season.They are keen on possession and to create chances but on the other side they are very vulnerable on the counter attacks.
What has been the view of United’s transfer activity over in Europe? Are people surprised we have managed to sign Falcao and Di Maria with no Champions League football?
I don’t think that people are surprised. It was clear to see that this United team needed quality in every part of the pitch to compete with Chelsea, City or Liverpool…
What is your opinion on the signings we made?
The players United brought in are very good.Obviously they need a little bit more time as they played in different competitions (La Liga,Ligue 1 etc)… But it is the right step in the right moment to build something for the future.
What do you think is going wrong for the team at the moment and do you think it is just a case of it taking time for Louis Van Gaal’s methods to bear fruit?
Personally I think it is just a question of time. Louis van Gaal brings in his ideas of playing football. This needs a lot of practice and games. But I think the players will get more and more comfortable with the tactical awareness for which Louis van Gaal is famous for.
How do you think the club will do this season?
I think they will end up in the top 4. I don’t think that they can fight for the title because this change will cost them to many points until winter. And after winter it will be very diffcult to catch up 20 points plus to the team that is on top of the table.
Do United have a big following over in Switzerland?
Yeah there are many people walking around with United jerseys,even in this difficult time for the club.
Vaduz are now playing in the top flight of Swiss football, what sort of start have the team made to the new campaign? You recently played against Basel, how tough was that?
We didn’t have the best start and we dropped to mayn points to easily. We gave away 2 wins in the last 2 minutes of the game. Now we seem to get back the points which we would have deserved in the first games.
Against Basel we had a good game and it was 1-1 until the 85th minute. We seemed to be closer to the leading goal but one individual mistake saw us 2-1 behind. Then we tried everything and received the 3-1 on a counter attack. It was a great experience for us to see that we can compete against any team in this league.
What are you hoping for from this season from both a personal and team perspective?
For me personally it is important to stay healthy and to bring in my qualities. As I am an experienced player I want to be very constant in my displays and help younger players to develop along my side. For our team perspective it would be great to get as many points as possible and stay out of relegation zone. This would be a great achievement as we have by far the smallest budget in the Swiss Super League.
