Louis van Gaal has demanded an immediate improvement from Manchester United after admitting their start to the season has not been good enough.
They avoided matching their worst opening sequence to a Premier League campaign since 1992 by earning a point with an unconvincing display in a 1-1 draw at Sunderland.
But after the first-day defeat at home to Swansea, the new Old Trafford manager was left with much to ponder, his assertion that his side need a miracle to win the title this season looking increasingly accurate.
He revealed confidence was low after seeing Juan Mata’s goal at the Stadium of Light on Sunday cancelled out by Sunderland’s Jack Rodwell to leave the former champions already five points behind the early pace-setters in their attempts to improve on a disappointing seventh-place finish in May.
“So much is down to confidence,” van Gaal said. “In pre-season, our confidence was much better than it is now. “We’re working hard to improve and if we win the next match then that confidence will start to come back.”
The Dutchman added: “The players are disappointed because we thought we would win today (Sunday), and yet we have one point and it’s not good enough for Manchester United.
“I can’t say it was a better performance than last week because we didn’t create as many chances as against Swansea. Our passing needs to be better because we gave the ball away a lot when I didn’t expect us to.”
Van Gaal couldn’t lift spirits with a positive update on United’s pursuit of Real Madrid’s Angel di Maria, as he remained cautious over the prospects of signing the £60 million ($99 million, 75 million euro)-rated Argentinian midfielder.
“I can’t say about transfers at the moment,” he explained. “When a transfer has been finished then we can say something but now you have to wait and see.
“The club has to announce it. When we are thinking it’s the right time to announce it then we’ll come to you and say we’ve bought this player or that player, but at the moment we can’t say anything.”
