Monday, 22nd September, 2014
Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has said that he knows that Louis van Gaal wanted to buy a top class centre back in the summer.
Manchester United lost to Leicester City 5-3 yesterday and questions were asked about why the Dutchman didn’t invest to bring a proven central defender of European pedigree to shore up the club’s faltering backline.
The former Chelsea striker asserted that he knows Van Gaal wanted a defender but in all probability he was unable to bring the player that he wanted to Manchester United.
“The only thing that I can think of [why Van Gaal didn’t sign a centre-back]”, Hasselbaink told Match of the Day.
“I know for sure that he wanted a centre-half, or somebody there who could organise, but the only thing I can think of is he could not get who he wanted. And he's not going to buy somebody to just make up the numbers.
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“That's the only thing I can think he thought at that moment.”
The former Dutch international feels that Van Gaal’s logic behind creating a top heavy team at Old Trafford is to bring a more cavalier like approach to his Manchester United side and try to win games by scoring more goals than their opponents.
“So [he thought] let me buy strikers so that I can at least score goals and try to win the game. At that time they didn’t have enough goals in them and they didn’t keep clean sheets. But he could get [Radamel] Falcao and Falcao in your squad…you know.”
Hasselbaink still feels that Van Gaal will revert to three at the back once his defenders are all fit to play, having recently switched to a back four.
“I think he wants to play three at the back. I think he has bought [Marcos] Rojo to play as the left-sided centre-half and [Luke] Shaw as the left wing-back.”
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