In his newly adopted pundit role, Paul Scholes has gone from press recluse to enjoying himself in front of the camera, with plenty of opinions to go along with his presence on BT Sport on the opening day of the season. Criticising the manner in which Van Gaal's 3-5-2 system applied itself at Old Trafford, Scholes harked back to his former club's success of old, with entertainment appearing to be high on the ex-midfielder's agenda. "When you look at United the last 20 years, it's been 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 and that was where we had all our success. 3-5-2 may be something Van Gaal is a little obsessed with because it worked in the World Cup for him - there's no doubt about that. "But this crowd need a little bit of excitement and for me 3-5-2 is not a boring way of playing but it is a very slow way of playing, all about possession rather than having that thrust and ability to score goals," he reasoned. While Van Gaal adopting a rather negative 3-5-2, as opposed to his regular 4-3-3 variants, suggests that the Dutchman doesn't have the players at his disposal to stick strictly to his own philosophy, first-day criticisms were always likely.
