Selling Van Persie and Hernandez was a mistake by Van Gaal – Scholes

Now however, a big name has had his say, and with a pedigree like his, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has seemingly hit the nail on it’s head.

The Netherlands striker was deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford by Van Gaal and was sold to Turkish outfit Fenerbahce, while fellow forward Javier Hernandez was allowed to join Bayer Leverkusen and Adnan Januzaj was loaned out to Borussia Dortmund.

United spent big again in the summer, with the likes of Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin all coming in, but only one recognised striker was signed when Anthony Martial arrived on transfer deadline day from Monaco.

However, while Scholes does believe a lack of strikers in the ranks is a mistake Van Gaal has made, he was nevertheless encouraged by the Red Devils’ performance in defeat against PSV.

Speaking about Manchester United’s transfer business this summer Scholes said told BT Sport: “They’ve let three or four strikers go”.

However, the 40-year-old feels the squad is lacking in attack and believes that Van Gaal’s side have erred in allowing top forwards to leave without bringing in replacements. “I think if we’d have kept a Van Persie or a Hernandez it looks quite strong”, he added. And then the first chance they have out of the corner-kick, they score.

Manchester United were given another reality check as PSV Eindhoven came from behind to claim a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night, but Paul Scholes was encouraged by what he saw.

Captain Wayne Rooney did not feature in the match due to a hamstring injury so the France worldwide made it into Van Gaal’s starting XI. I thought they played really well, and just lacked it in the final third.