Due to Ander Herrera’s injury, Morgan Schneiderlin got to step out onto the Old Trafford pitch in the Champions League Group stages for the first time last night.
Manchester United’s four central midfielders: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick and Morgan Schneiderlin have been rotated through midweek match ups and Premier League games.
Carrick and Schneiderlin would man the midfield in the Prem, whilst Herrera and Bastian would take over in midweek but, Herrera’s injury left the spot open for the French midfielder.
Speaking to MUTV, Morgan Schneiderlin had this to say about United’s big win over VfL Wolfsburg:
“It was very important, we knew it was a must-win after the PSV Eindhoven result and that is what we did.”
“We’re happy with the win, but we fought hard until the end because the last 20 minutes were very hard when Wolfsburg gave everything, but we kept the score.”
“We knew Wolfsburg is a great team with great players. We were aware of that and we conceded a goal, but we kept our composure and I think we had many chances in the first half to level the score and that is what we did.”
“In the second half we quickly went 2-1 up. After that Wolfsburg put everything at us and that was hard for us, but we got the win and that is the most important thing.”
“Yeah it was a big game and a game where I and we can improve. It was a big game against a big team from Europe and we are very happy to play in this stage of football and we want to go through to keep our dream alive.”
“We want to see how far we can go. If we can keep this team spirit and if we keep improving like we have done since the start of the season, then why not?”
Daley Blind was brought into midfield late in the game, and agrees that team spirit was key to the Champions League victory:
“We created some great chances, but it was still 1-1 at half-time and after that we scored to make it 2-1 very quickly.”
“After that it was just about fighting for each ball in every moment, the team spirit was very high to win for each other and it was a very important three points.”
Louis van Gaal has claimed that his side need to be more clinical in front of goal but also admits that the side is improving. Morgan Schneiderlin agrees with the boss:
“I do feel we are improving.”
“At the start of the season people were talking about good results and not very good performances. In the last few weeks I don’t hear this anymore, they don’t complain about the style of play or anything and that is because we have improved.”
“We can see that on the training pitch and we can see that in the games. We are much better on the ball, we are doing better things and something we play very high quality football. But there are still some things we can improve.”
Morgan Schneiderlin will play a key role in keeping Arsenal’s crafty attackers away from goal on Sunday. But, he’ll hopefully prove to Arsène Wenger that he should have tried harder to sign the midfielder.
