Louis van Gaal orders synthetic pitches at Manchester United's training ground to replicate Old Trafford surface

Louis Van Gaal demands for better facilities at Carrington training ground

Following Louis van Gaal’s recommendation, Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman of Manchester United has approved the installation of two Desso playing surfaces in order to replicate the part-synthetic pitch at Old Trafford.

This comes after the Dutch manager demanded that the practice pitches should be very similar to the pitch at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal, who would take charge as manager for United for the first time when they play against Los Angeles Galaxy in Pasadena on Wednesday has made a series of recommendations for improvements at Carrington.

The new Desso turf will settle down quickly and should be ready to use in six weeks. During that time, the team will train on one of the many other pitches at Carrington.

Old Trafford surface change

The previous pitch at Old Trafford was a pure grass surface, while the new surface is a mixture of grass and 20 million artificial fibres which interwine with the natural grass 20 metres beneath the surface. This will lend strength and stablity to the pitch.

The pitch is believed to be firmer than the traditional grass surface, which made van Gaal insist on relaying of the training ground to match the conditions.

The club had earlier commisioned £800,000 to a new Wembley-style, part-synthetic surface at Old Trafford after Sir Alex Ferguson’s earlier claims that the old pitch had collapsed following winter rain in 2013/14.