Brendan Rodgers warns Van Gaal of Premier League Challenges
Opeyemi Oladunjoye
Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers has warned new Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal that the competitive nature of the Premier League will make it difficult for the Dutchman to win the title in his first season.
Van Gaal won his first meeting with United’s arch-rivals after Wayne Rooney inspired a second-half comeback and 3-1 win over Liverpool to win the Guinness International Champions Cup on Monday evening, sealing 5 wins in 5 pre-season games.
Rodgers is however adamant that Van Gaal, despite success at clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich, will struggle at England.
“I think what he’ll find is the competition in this league will be different from any other league that he’s worked in,” said Rodgers. “In a lot of the other leagues there are one or two teams and those are the teams that are expected to win.
“This is a league where the top team plays the bottom team and on any given day you can lose. You don’t get that a lot in the other leagues. I think the competition will probably take him by surprise and that’s from foreign managers I have spoken to over the years.
“I’ve worked closely with foreign players who have come in and that real physical competitive nature will be different from anywhere else he’s worked before.
“I think it’s going to be really as competitive,” he continued. “Last season was great and right the way through there were four or five teams right up there, and then in the closing months it narrowed down a wee bit.
The Premier League historically shows that it’s a very competitive league. Man United will want to bounce back, Chelsea will be strong, Manchester City are the champions so they’ll be the favourites.
“The likes of Tottenham have been up there the last couple of seasons.
When Harry Redknapp was there they were a Champions League team. So the numbers are there to make it really competitive again and difficult to forecast.”
