Manchester United: Former winger Nani slams Dutch duo of Louis van Gaal and Albert Stuivenberg for treating players like kids

Former Manchester United winger Nani has criticised Louis van Gaal and his assistant Albert Stuivenberg for treating their players like 18-year-old kids. The 27-year-old has given an insight on the Dutchman's training regime and has slammed the methods of the Dutch duo in the training ground.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss took charge at Old Trafford in the summer of 2014 after the World Cup in Brazil. After taking the job, the United manager admitted that the Red Devils lack quality players on the wings, which made the Portuguese international question if he was really needed at the club.

After playing each and every minute of Portugal's World Cup fixtures, Nani struggled to get regular playing time during United's 2014 pre-season. The same summer, the winger was loaned out to Sporting Lisbon as a part of the swap deal that saw United sign Marcos Rojo. A year later, he was allowed to leave on a permanent transfer and Nani joined Fenerbahce last summer.

"He didn't use me a lot in pre-season. I was the player who had the least time in all the games and I was feeling, 'This coach doesn't count on me'," Nani told the Sunday Times.

"He and his assistant were shouting at players like we were kids, like 18-year-olds. And I think, 'This is not the way to treat us because I am professional, I am training every day, I'm doing nothing wrong, I'm putting quality in the training'.

"'You must pass the ball like this', 'Come on!' Blah, blah, blah. It's crazy. It's difficult to play football like that. Because football is instinct. It's decision. It's what you see. If you see you must shoot, first touch. If you see you must take a touch, you take a touch. If you dribble, you dribble. That's why you make different type of goals."

Nani was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2007 and he compared the current United side to the one managed by the Old Trafford legend before his retirement. The Portuguese attacker identified the differences and suggested that the current squad lacked leaders as the Red Devils are fighting to make it to the top four.

"Now when you see Manchester, it's not Manchester. With all respect to the players who are there, the personality, the mentality is all different. When you see Manchester United go inside the pitch you see a new era," he said.

"Before you had big names, experienced players who represent so many years at the club. Now you see players who are maybe in their first year, their first time in the Premier League. It's all new.

"With Ferguson the manager always said, '100% we will score. If we don't concede we will win the game'. It is different times, people must understand it's a different coach, different players. They make their choice to renew the club, so now they have to deal with that. It's not working. But what can you do?"