Van Gaal unhappy with Mata performance

Manchester United’s players look “bored”, former midfielder Paul Scholes said after watching his old side edge third-tier Sheffield United 1-0 in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Although admittedly not a fan of the winter transfer window, Van Gaal confessed that he would make a move to bring in new players should the right player become available. The win papered over United’s uninspired performance, but playing as they did tonight, it won’t be long before the Red Devils’ are exposed in their flailing efforts to book a spot in next season’s Champions League.

Manchester United came into the game with one victory in their last nine matches, and played like a side lacking in confidence during a tiresome first half that saw neither side register a shot on target.

Van Gaal told Sky Sports about the changes he has made within the team to introduce a system where the players can take on more responsibility.

“I can understand (why) the manager of Sheffield United choose this kind of tactics, but they didn’t have any chances, we have kept another clean sheet and we deserved to win”, the United manager said.

“The players are bored, fans are bored, everyone’s bored”. I think he probably will be.

“We had to play more quickly than we did in the first half”.

But, when asked if he had a bid rejected for the Brazilian playmaker, Van Gaal revealed in the post-match press conference: “I don’t think that we shall do business in January”.

“In the second it was a little bit better, we created more”.

And, in an honest assessment of his team’s performance, Van Gaal said: “The result was OK but the performance was not alright”.

Manchester United v Sheffield United kicks-off at 5.30pm local (04.30am AEDT) and will be streamed live online.

“We found it tough to break them down but we did what we needed to do, we won the game and we’re in the next round”.

“I think we need to take the positives from it. We’ve had a challenging start to the season but I’ve now been able to show consistency in selection”. We didn’t also a year ago I believe.