Louis van Gaal has urged Manchester United and Anthony Martial to keep their feet on the ground after Sunday’s 3-2 win against Southampton.
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Signed from Monaco for £36.7million on transfer deadline day this summer, Martial has defied the critics to score three goals in his opening two games.
David De Gea, who nearly departed United 24 hours before Martial arrived, was on hand to make two fine saves but it was Martial who had Van Gaal purring afterwards. “Mostly, he shall have a lot of dips so that I expect also from him“. “It is very hard but he is willing to learn English so it is a matter of time, I think”.
Louis van Gaal has revealed that Morgan Schneiderlin and Marouane Fellaini are serving for interpreters for Anthony Martial as Manchester United’s manager and top scorer struggle to communicate with each other.
The price tag for Martial, just 19 years old, was huge and many said the pressure would be too great for an unknown striker at a young age but so far he has proved them horrendously wrong.
“What I am saying all the time is that we have to improve and we finished fourth a year ago “.
“He adapts to the system of how we want to play, which is also important”.
“I wouldn’t have imagined that he would have had the composure that he’s had, because his goalscoring record before he came to Manchester United was 15 goals in 70 games, which doesn’t suggest he’s got that level of composure”. “That’s not bad”, said Van Gaal.
But the 64-year-old admits he was impressed with the way his players remained in control at St. Mary’s despite falling behind to an early Graziano Pelle goal. Juan Mata scored Manchester United’s third goal. Though they lost to Sweden in the final, Portugal beat Germany’s youth side 5-0 in the semis, a game in which the Monaco star scored.
When Koeman’s opinion was put to Van Gaal, the Dutchman was dismissive of his compatriots claims. “Not many Champions League clubs have won [this weekend], so I am very happy“.
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“But I liked the way we did it because we controlled the game for 30 minutes of the second half“. “When you have the ball then the opponent can not score”.
