PEP GUARDIOLA KNEW something many others did too.
Unfortunately for Manchester United, their manager Louis van Gaal didn’t get the same memo.
“We are all human beings”, the Dutchman said last December.
“Also Bastian Schweinsteiger is a human being and 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.”
Van Gaal was speaking in the aftermath of United’s exit from the Champions League, the side humbled by a team Schweinsteiger knew well – Wolfsburg.
But for the veteran midfielder, he lasted seventy minutes and was withdrawn when the Premier League side had to chase the game.
Days before, he had been hauled off again as United tried to find a way past West Ham.
Post-game, van Gaal admitted that Schweinsteiger had been far from his best since arriving in England.
Much was made of the 31-year-old joining United from Bayern Munich.
The deal was lauded further when it was revealed just how little the club had paid for Schweinsteiger’s services – a modest €9 million.
But he has not had the impact many, including van Gaal, thought he’d have.
Schweinsteiger has made 31 appearances in all competitions but his influence has been minimal. In the Premier League, he’s managed a full ninety minutes on just eight occasions.
He started slowly in the top-flight, United wrapping him in cotton wool through the early part of the campaign.
There was a pattern though. He started three successive away games between the end of August and the start of October – Swansea, PSV and Arsenal. United lost them all and the 3-0 defeat at the Emirates, where Schweinsteiger and Carrick were completely over-ran by a frenetic and relentless Gunners’ attack – led to a dismal collapse which has never properly been rectified, merely controlled.
The same can be said for Schweinsteiger’s injury problems.
There were persistent whispers last season that his knee problems were more severe than anyone was actually letting on. At the start of the 2014 season, Guardiola revealed the issues originated the previous year and that the midfielder had played through a victorious World Cup thanks to a litany of painkilling injections.
He finally returned to competitive action in November when the initial word was he’d be back inside six weeks.
The fitness concerns must’ve been a shock to van Gaal. Schweinsteiger was an integral part of the Dutchman’s Bayern side and it was his decision to switch the former winger to a more central midfield role.
After a first season where he bemoaned United’s inability to control games, van Gaal pinpointed Schweinsteiger to do just that – be a constant, composed and calm figure in the middle of the pitch and set the rhythm for the side.
But, United’s season can be split in two – the slow, ponderous, usually limp fare offered up between August and January and what’s happened since. Now, there’s pace and urgency up top owing to the presence of a litany of young, hungry kids. Van Gaal has changed tact, probably scarred from Carrick and Schweinsteiger’s role in the demolition in North London – and the latter plan, although risky, is the preferred option now.
Schweinsteiger hasn’t brought the control van Gaal wanted. As a result, the coach has altered his process and with the German now effectively ruled out for the rest of the season, it’s hard to see how he’ll be missed given United’s current approach.
And maybe that says it all.
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