LvG's first programme notes as United manager

I am looking forward to walking out into the stadium as the manager of Manchester United, as I know it will be a special moment for me.

‘I have been here before, of course, as a manager with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and I know just how difficult it is for visiting teams at Old Trafford. I am really looking forward to having you on the same side as my players.

After tonight’s game we will be fully concentrating on the start of the Premier League, which I am really looking forward to. I have managed in Spain and in Germany and in the Netherlands, so there was only one football country I wanted to see inside and that was England, because of the level of the Premier League and because of the atmosphere. I cannot wait to get started.

I wanted to see an improvement in our performances as the tour went along, and that was mainly the case. In the first of the match against Liverpool, I must say that we were very weak, but the spirit of the team turned that around.

The players wanted to show themselves as a team and that is very important for me. I could see winning that particular match brought a lot of pleasure to our fans, and I was pleased that we were able to make them happy.