Bastian Schweinsteiger has been struggling for form of late, and the criticism of this has been putting the German captain under a lot of pressure of late. However Die Nationalmannschaft head coach Joachim L w assured the media that the Manchester United midfielder would still retain the captain’s armband of the national side.
The epitome of Schweinsteiger’s poor performance came in the away group stage match against VfL Wolfsburg, in which Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal took him off in the second half, when the Red Devils were trailing.
However, Joachim L w has come out in support of his Schweinsteiger, reassuring everyone that the 31-year-old would not lose his captain’s armband in the German national side.
“We at the DFB (German Football Association) know what we are getting with Bastian,” L w was quoted saying to German newspaper Bild. “He’s still a world-class player and undisputedly our captain.”
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L w also went on to say that it the World Cup winneris probably taking a bit longer than normal, to adapt to the pace of the English game. He called for the fans to support him, and said that even experienced players sometimes need that time to adjust their game to a completely different style of play.
“You’ve got to give even an experienced player like him time to adapt to a new league,” he said. “I am sure that Manchester United are still going to get a lot of joy out of Schweinsteiger.”
‘Not the same Schweinsteiger’, says van Gaal
Schweinsteiger had previously played under Louis van Gaal at Bayern Munich, and had managed to win the Bundesliga in the 2009/10 season, under the reign of the Dutchman.
However, van Gaal seemed disappointed at Schweinsteiger’s performance after the match, as he conceded that this was not the same guy, who once ran riot at the Allianz Arena.
“He wants to play at the highest level and certainly in Germany to show his qualities, but I cannot say that he was the Schweinsteiger from my period in Munich today,” said van Gaal.