Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has hit back at Red Devils legend Paul Scholes and said that the Englishman's comments have not been of any great importance to him.
The 40-year-old, who is regarded as one of the best midfielders ever in the history of Manchester United, criticised the strategies and tactics of the Dutch manager after the Red Devils' loss against Championship side Middlesbrough in a League Cup game on Wednesday.
Scholes went on to say that he would have been a complete misfit in the team that Van Gaal is trying to build at Old Trafford this season.
Van Gaal, on his part, completely shrugged off the comments from the football legend. "You have an expression. I always use Dutch expression, but you have a fantastic expression for that - 'sticks and stones can break my bones, but names [words] will never hurt me," the Dutchman said at a press conference.
"He [Scholes] doesn't have the responsibility, so he can say everything...why he is saying something? For the benefit of the club or the benefit of himself?" Van Gaal questioned.
The ex-Bayern Munich manager also didn't mince words when he said he doesn't want to defend what a legend like Scholes has said about him.
"I don't want to defend myself because I cannot defend, because he is a legend and he has a lot of resonance, so I hear," Van Gaal said.
"I think when you are a legend, you have to speak with the manager or his friend, Ryan Giggs, or Ed Woodward, but not this way, because he will be paid by the BBC or Sky."
Here's what Paul Scholes said about LvG on Thursday:
"The style of play [at United presently under Van Gaal] is not something Sir Alex Ferguson would have adhered to," Scholes talked to the BBC Radio Manchester. "The team is brilliantly coached to defend and not give goals away, not give the ball away.
"I'm not saying it as a coach but the hardest thing to do is to coach scoring goals and being creative.
"I'd almost say that they're a team that you wouldn't want to play against – because they're tight, they're organised, they're difficult to score goals against - and it's probably a team you wouldn't want to play in either because there's a lack of creativity and a lack of risk in play.
"It seems he [Van Gaal] doesn't want players to beat men, to score goals and it's probably not a team I would've enjoyed playing in."
