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Louis van Gaal says Manchester United's squad 'is not balanced'

Reuters

New Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal saw his tenure begin with aplomb on Wednesday, as the Red Devils welcomed the Dutchman to the club with a 7-0 thrashing of the LA Galaxy in a friendly at the Rose Bowl.

Following the contest, Van Gaal was asked to give an early evaluation of his team, having finally had the opportunity to see the players in game action for the first time.

Despite the resounding scoreline, the 62-year-old still managed to notice one significant flaw with the make-up of his side.

"We have four number 10's, so it is not balanced in my eyes," said Van Gaal.

Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Shinji Kagawa all saw action on Wednesday evening, with the Englishman scoring twice in the process. In order to accommodate the wealth of playmakers in his squad, Van Gaal utilized the 3-4-3 formation that proved so successful with the Netherlands at the World Cup in Brazil.

While it seems likely that there are more signings to come this summer, particularly in light of  executive vice chairman Ed Woodward's recent comments that there is "no fixed budget" with regards to transfer dealings, Van Gaal admits that he may be forced to permanently deviate from the 4-3-3 formation that he traditionally employs.

"When you want to change a system, you must start at once," he said. "We have only played it twice on the training pitch but the boys are willing to pick up the information.

"We can play better with this new system because we have four strikers. When we play 4-3-3 I have three strikers on the bench, and that is not good."

United's next opportunity to test out their new system comes Saturday, when the club will continue its pre-season tour of the United States with a match in Denver against Italian side AS Roma.

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