San Jose (California), July 22 (IANS): Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has criticised veteran German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger's performance against San Jose Earthquakes after the newest signing from Bayern Munich played just 45 minutes in the friendly.

United sealed the game 3-1 in the International Champions Cup clash on Tuesday courtesy goals from Juan Mata, Memphis Depay and Andreas Pereira.

FIFA 2014 World Cup winner Schweinsteiger, who was reportedly signed for a fee of 12 million pounds, was introduced at half-time.

"He was also bad (Schweinsteiger). There was one highlight I think and that was Pereira. Players can play bad and certainly when you have only three days or six days training sessions in your legs and you have to play 45 minutes," van Gaal was quoted as saying by goal.com on Wednesday.

"Everybody can say that it's easy to step in but it is not easy. I think the first match he played very well, and now he played bad. But that is also a process and certainly when you only have one week of training."

Former Bayern manager Van Gaal blamed the whole outfit for being lacklustre in the second half saying they gave away the ball a bit too easily.

"In the second half, I think we played very badly, a lot of ball losses, unnecessary, and the only highlight was the goal from Pereira and I think we don't give many chances away but we give possibilities away," the Dutchman said.

"It was a threat always and that was not necessary. Our positions in midfield were not so good as in the first half," the former Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam manager concluded.