When Manchester United shelled out £25million to bring Morgan Schneiderlin to Old Trafford in the summer of 2015, they believed they were signing one of the Premier League’s most effective midfielders.
During his seven seasons with Southampton, Schneiderlin had developed a reputation as an efficient box-to-box player who could break up play, get attacks started and dominate the middle of the park.
Morgan Schneiderlin on his time under Louis van Gaal
But after an encouraging start at Old Trafford, Schneiderlin was never able to establish himself in the Red Devils’ engine room, with his influence soon waning for a Manchester United side still failing to assert itself in the post-Fergie era.
“I really respect Van Gaal and everything he’s done in his career,” Schneiderlin admits to FourFourTwo. But even the first time I spoke to him on the phone, he came across quite cold and direct.
“I was happy to respect the instructions on the pitch, but with him I felt really confined.
“In video sessions, he’d stop the tape and say, ‘Why did you play this 30-yard pass?’ Even though it reached its target!
“He didn’t want me to speed up the play. There were loads of things like that. It meant that when I was on the pitch, I wasn’t myself.
“Looking back, I should have just played my natural game.”
Schneiderlin would only last 18 months at the club, as he found playing time hard to come after Jose Mourinho replaced Van Gaal in the summer of 2016.
With just 147 minutes in the bank over the first half of the 2016/17 by the time the January transfer window came about, the 15-time France international moved to Everton, a move which saw Schneiderlin reunited with his former Saints boss Ronald Koeman.
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