• Premier League

United players struggling to adapt to Van Gaal's philosophy

Louis van Gaal says his Manchester United players may be struggling to adapt to his managerial philosophies.

After a near-perfect pre-season tour of the United States, United have amassed just five points from five matches, their worst start in Premier League history. Most recent was a 5-3 defeat at Leicester after which Robin van Persie revealed his manager had held a confrontational crisis meeting.

Van Gaal has implemented many changes on and off the pitch since he took charge having tinkered with the team's formation and has made changes to the club's training ground, but he feels he may have overwhelmed his players.

"We give [the players] a lot of information and you have to work out that information," Van Gaal said.

"There shall be a moment in the season that this information is not too much. At this moment maybe it is too much for the players.

"It's very difficult because we are starting with a new team and a new relationship between players so that's why it needs time."

Although the season is just six weeks old, Van Gaal believes United's fans are already "very tired" of hearing their manager plead for patience.

The Dutchman, who surprisingly declared United had "defended well" this season despite a 4-0 League Cup exit at MK Dons, hit back at suggestions he had spent too much of his budget on attacking players.

The 63-year-old attracted criticism for signing Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo when experienced heads like Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were allowed to leave.

United's defence now looks even weaker as Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are all injured while Tyler Blackett is suspended and they face somewhat of a crisis ahead of the visit of West Ham, which Van Gaal has branded the toughest challenge of his managerial career.

United were interested in signing Mats Hummels earlier this summer, but they were quickly warned off making a bid by Borussia Dortmund.

"Maybe we were at the market in August for a right-sided central defender," Van Gaal said. "You never know but I don't want to discuss that."

However, after declaring there was no panic around Old Trafford, Van Gaal also denied the lack of experience at centre-back is a problem.

"My concern is never the age of the experience, my concern is the profile," Van Gaal added. "You have to fit the profile. There are a lot of defenders in this world, but I don't want to buy [just] any defenders.

"Age is not so important. With the Dutch national team I played with Bruno Martins Indi and Stefan de Vrij, they were 21 and 22.

"Until Leicester we only had three goals against in spite of the fact we were not playing so well but our defensive organisation was good."

Van Gaal, who may have to hand a debut to 19-year-old defender Paddy McNair on Saturday, said he was aware that Evans and Jones both had a history with injuries before he took the job.

The United manager claims his training methods will make them less susceptible to fitness problems in the future.

"I have been told [about their injury history] and now they are confirming [it] but I have good hopes that we shall improve in that matter because normally I don't have any injury problems," Van Gaal said. "For a good example I had Arjen Robben [at Bayern Munich]. He had injuries before but not under me.

"We helped him by training sessions. We are doing that here in the same way."

In the build-up to the match, Allardyce said United's £150 million transfer splurge showed the club was in "panic" mode.

When asked whether that was the case, Van Gaal responded: "No."

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