Louis van Gaal has told his Manchester United players that they need to learn to cope with the pressure at Old Trafford after their 2-1 loss to Swansea on Saturday.

After a very impressive pre-season, United winning all six games, the opening-day defeat quickly brought the club back down to Earth and reminded fans that there is still a lot of work to be done.

A first-half goal from Ki Sung Yeung was cancelled out seven minutes after the break through a Wayne Rooney overhead kick. 

But Gylfi Sigurdsson popped up to spoil the party inside Old Trafford with 20 minutes to go and condemned Van Gaal to become the first United manager to lose at home on the opening day of the season as well as United’s first opening-day loss of the season since 1972.

There were signs last season that this United side couldn’t handle the pressure of playing at home under David Moyes and at times you would have thought he never left, as the Reds just looked completely lost for ideas.

“You win everything (in pre-season) then in your first match you lose,” said the Van Gaal after the game. 

“It cannot be worse and also, in the process, it is not good because we have built up a lot of confidence and then it is smashed down because of this result.

“Today we did not reach that level and we did not play like a team. After our wins in the United States and against Valencia, the expectation was so high and I saw that in the first half.

“I’ve seen a lot of players who were nervous, making the wrong choice and that is a pity but these players have to be used to that expectation because that is Manchester United and you have to cope with that pressure. But it is a process.”

Swansea manager Gary Monk was impressed with the unity of his side after the game and, with most people tipping them to lose this fixture, Monk was pleased to prove the doubters wrong.

“Nobody gave us a chance before the game, but we can be better than that,” the Swansea manager said.

“We can be sharper and improve in certain areas, but today we were right in many aspects and we got the right result.

“I’m very pleased overall. We were very good today and showed a great attitude. Hopefully we can have more days like this.”