by ‘Ifreke Inyang

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes, has hailed new manager Louis van Gaal, for bringing back the fear factor to Old Trafford, but insists he will not win the Premier League this season.

Van Gaal was announced as David Moyes’ replacement this summer and officially took over, after leading Holland to a third-place finish at the 2014 World Cup.

He has switched to a 3-5-2 formation and Scholes described him as a “mad genius”, but it does not believe it will bring back the title this campaign.

“He’s a bit like a mad genius, he looks a bit crazy,” Scholes wrote in The Independent.

“He’s brought a bit of fear into the players which is no bad thing. I played for 20 years for Sir Alex Ferguson and he could be a scary man. Sometimes fear can bring performances out from you.

“But I have seen clips on the telly and one moment he’s hugging someone for doing a great pass and the next he’s going off his head.

“You knew where you stood with Sir Alex Ferguson straight from what you’d done on the Saturday. If you’d done well he’d pat you on the back and if you hadn’t you probably wouldn’t be playing the next week.

“This manager has great experience with proper clubs and been successful. Hopefully he can bring a bit of that to us.”

Instead, Scholes has picked Manchester City and Chelsea, to battle it out for the Premier League crown, claiming that United need to bring in two bodies in midfield.

“I think the title is between City and Chelsea, they’ve both made decent signings. The next two places are between United, Liverpool and Arsenal,” he added.

“United will be looking for a better season than last season, and that shouldn’t be too difficult. It was a big blip last year. Disappointing.

“I’m sure he [Van Gaal] would have liked to have signed more players. He’s not managed to do that yet. Are the players out there available? The areas they need, in midfield, is an area where I thought they might have bought a couple of players.

“It’s not because they’re not in the Champions League [that players aren’t joining United]. Maybe if they were out of it for three or four years, but United is such a massive club. Being out of the Champions League will hopefully only be for one year.

“The chance to win the Premier League… possibly not this year if they don’t make any more signings, but they’ll definitely have a better year than last year. Confidence was low at the start of this season and I think this manager has brought that back.”