Schweinsteiger: “I’m as good as ever”

Bastian Schweinsteiger insists that it was the right decision to make the move to Manchester United, despite the Reds crashing out of the Champions League and slipping out of the top four in recent weeks.

In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, the 31-year-old insists that he is as good as he has ever been and believes he has adjusted to English football well.

He said:

I believe I’m playing on the level that I was at during the 2014 World Cup when I silenced my critics. Even when I was 20 I couldn’t enter a race with Usain Bolt so my slowness hasn’t changed, but what’s important for my game is that I’m mentally quick, and in that sense I’m as good as ever. My performances in Manchester have been really okay. In November, it went really well for me.

The midfielder’s performances saw him named United’s player of the month for November and said it was a big change to have different players around him after so many years with Bayern Munich:

In my eyes, I acclimatised to the Premier League very quickly and the only thing that was unusual for me was the many new players. With Bayern and the German national team, I always had the same people around me. So it was a big change, to have new players than playing in another league.

However, Schweinsteiger admitted that the Reds should have taken more risks in their Champions League encounters against PSV and Wolfsburg, which they drew and lost – sending them into the Europa League after Christmas:

I’m getting used to us being in the Europa League, but we didn’t gamble on the final day against Wolfsburg and before that against Eindhoven. We missed our chances far too easily, and that runs like a red thread through our season: We dominate the game, but do not score the decisive goal. Otherwise, we would now be in the Champions League knockout round as group winners.

And he says that United still have a lot to do if they want to be placed among Europe’s top teams again:

In many ways, we are not yet at the level of Bayern Munich or Barcelona. We do not have Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery in our team. We play with three 20-year-old forwards. That’s something else. In Bavaria, I had ten world-class players next to me. And here we want to get there. But it takes time.

Schweinsteiger still has one game of a three-match ban to serve for striking West Ham defender Winston Reid with an elbow and the German will miss the trip to Stoke on Boxing Day. However, he is expected to be back in action when Chelsea visit Old Trafford two days later.