Manchester United News: Red Devils to Start Premier League Season without Dutch Striker

Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has revealed that Robin van Persie will not feature in a friendly against Valencia and Red Devils' first Premier League match against Swansea.

Van Persie, who is on a post-World Cup break, will begin training from Monday and the Dutchman insisted that his star striker will not be match fit to take part in United's first few fixtures. Van Persie, however, is willing to play in the season opener.

"Robin will begin training on Monday, but he won't play in the friendly against Valencia on August 12, definitely not," van Gaal said. "And he won't play in the Premier League at the start either, I think."

"People can criticise me for that decision but I know what you have to do with players who have had three weeks' holiday," he added. "Hopefully, Robin will get his fitness back very fast. But at this moment, he won't be playing."

Former Man United manager David Moyes was accused of making van Persie work hard last season, due to which he picked up a knee injury that ruled him out for six week. However, the new manager is not making the same mistake that his predecessor did and not rushing the Dutch international onto the field.

United have fairly easy fixtures in August and September, after playing Swansea in the opening match. They will play Sunderland, Burnley, QPR, Leicester and West Ham United, which will give van Gaal enough time to analyse van Persie's fitness.

Meanwhile, Van Gaal revealed that he has received guarantee from United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward that the club will not be organising friendly matches this autumn. The Red Devils are not playing the Champions League football this season and the Dutchman wants to utilise that time to train his players.

"I need preparation of 10 weeks and I am lucky Manchester United are not playing in a European competition to do this," the former Bayern Munich boss insisted.

"We have discussed the issue of friendly matches and for the first 10 weeks we have to train. After that it is different and we will wait to see if we have a chance to play some matches. It will also depend on the opponent. It has to be a good opponent like this tournament in America."

Earlier, the former Netherlands boss complained that travelling to the United States for playing in the International Champions Cup has impeded his plans of working with the squad.