By Tom Finn
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal appears to be running out of patience with Colombian star striker Radamel Falcao.
Since joining United on a season long loan from Monaco the once prolific goal-scorer is yet to play a full 90 minutes and is running out of time to try and convince the Red Devils to make his loan spell a permanent move in a deal that would cost United £52 million.
So far the £280,000 per-week striker has made just seven appearances for his new club which include four as a substitute during which time he netted a single goal.
The 28-year-old moved to Old Trafford following knee surgery that kept him out of the World Cup and has recently been on the side-lines for the past six-weeks with a calf strain.
Van Gaal insists that currently Falcao can only play for 20 minutes and when asked by the Daily Mail about whether or not he was frustrated by having Falcao for limited playing time the Dutchman brushed aside the question saying:
‘I’m not interested. He has to follow my philosophy. Do you understand that? Yeah, I’m here because of that.’
Van Gaal hinted that he would have preferred to have the Colombian train more but was hampered by the injuries to Rooney and Wilson.
‘A bigger contribution is to play in the second team for 45 or 60 minutes or even 90 minutes,’ said Van Gaal.
‘But I couldn’t do that because I needed him when Rooney was injured (for Stoke) and Wilson was injured (for Hull).
‘I selected him in spite of the fact he can only play 20 minutes at this level because the rhythm of the game in the Premier League is the highest.’
United will hope to extend their four- game winning streak when they take on Southampton at St Marys on Monday night with both Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie expected to be fit to play.
