LOUIS, YOU SAID LAST YEAR THE UNITED SQUAD WAS BROKEN. DO YOU THINK IT IS WELL FIXED NOW?

We only have a better balance of the team. Now we have all the positions double occupied and that is what I said in many, many press conferences last season that we were not in balance and I have to play with players in other positions than they normally have to play in or can play.
Now it is a better balance, but the preparation is the same. Certainly the players have already been working with us for one year, with me and the staff and are used to the philosophy.
Now we have to implement that with the new players and that will happen every year because I believe in refreshment of the group.

THERE WAS STILL A BIG GAP TO CHAMPIONS CHELSEA LAST SEASON. HAVE YOU GOT ENOUGH TO MAKE THAT UP?

The gap is only the consequence of our bad start because after the bad start you will be amazed.

SO ARE YOU BETTER PREPARED TO MAKE A GOOD START?

I don’t know. That could happen again but every day I say to the boys: ‘Our first game against Tottenham Hotspur is the most important.’ The performance against Barcelona here [a 3-1 win] was much more important than the result. OK, the result is fantastic but we were lucky also. If we’d had that luck against Chelsea away last season, you never know.

YOU HAVE SO FAR LET 17 PLAYERS GO AND BROUGHT IN 10. DID YOU EXPECT TO MAKE THAT MANY CHANGES?
I believe in refreshment. You need that, to keep the spirit in the team and also the challenge to be in the line-up and before my time it was not done like that. We had a lot of old players – 35, 34 – so we needed to do that but it was difficult for me because I was new and I had to do it at once.
After that I made my selection. In my preparation I let players go and we bought up to the last day of August last summer.

CAN YOU STILL ACHIEVE IN THREE YEARS WHAT YOU HOPED?

I hope I shall end my career with the championship of course. That would be fantastic because that is also the aim of Manchester United. My personal aim is that I shall be a manager with four championships in four different countries and in my opinion the best countries of Europe.

DO YOU AND YOUR TEAM HAVE A REALISTIC CHANCE OF WINNING THE BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE THIS SEASON?

We at Manchester United buy only players who can contribute to our level. You can write every player that you want, every name that you can say, but we cannot say that.

It is also difficult to select the players because you need the players, the club, the money and the price, so it is not easy as you think. You have seen that Memphis Depay is a talent, much more than that, at his age, maybe the best talent. That was voted by the media or maybe the trainer coaches at the World Cup. Matteo Darmian is from a small club but he also was at AC Milan so is a late developer but I think he can contribute and also Bastian Schweinsteiger can contribute as a senior player with a lot of quality.

Morgan Schneiderlin has to prove it because he was in Southampton where maybe he was the leader. Now he is here and I believe in him, that is why he is here.

But I want more players but it is not always possible...For more in this story go to http://www.080football.com/van-gaal-talks-united-mourinho-chelsea-city-barcelona-title-and-his-plan-for-the-season/