Man Utd’s struggles continue under van Gaal
But on Tuesday night, Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United squad, complete with his £250 million of additions, failed to qualify from a Champions League group which featured none of the big teams expected to compete in latter stages.
And that was a couple of days after a turgid 0-0 with West Ham at Old Trafford, their fourth scoreless draw in their last six home games, one of which they went on to lose in extra time.
Only two teams in the Premier League top ten have scored fewer goals. That displays a failure in both creating and finishing, although it should be noted this particular failure is not a spectacular one. They are a long way from bottom of the scoring charts. And that there are eleven teams, including the reigning champions, with fewer goals shows their record is no disaster, but it is by no means good. It’s OK. It’s middle of the road. It’s a shrug of the shoulders. But it is not Manchester United, or, at least, what Manchester United should be.
This is a sheepish, apologetic incarnation of a club which built its reputation on smashing teams out of its way. Through the industry of Wayne Rooney, the force of nature that was Cristiano Ronaldo and the dismissive sneer of Eric Cantona, Sir Alex Ferguson’s United teams used to swat the opposition aside without breaking a sweat.
Van Gaal’s current team, in contrast, look uncertain of exactly what they’re trying to be. In nearly a season and a half, the Dutchman has failed to really impress any kind of identity on his team. They are not out to dominate the opposition like a Jose Mourinho side might, or to dance through opponents in an elegant blur like the Arsène Wenger archetype, or to press high and hit fast like Jurgen Klopp would instruct. They just, kind of, exist.
They pass it a lot, but there is no tiki-taka philosophy; in fact, there is no discernible philosophy whatsoever. They pass for the sake of passing, and do so more times per shot than any other side in the league.
Neither has van Gaal bought well enough. It is difficult to look at their squad and see exactly where that £250 million has gone. There are no worldclass players there, with the arguable exception of Rooney. Certainly, there is nobody at Old Trafford coveted by the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Illustrative of that was the signing of Bastian Schweinsteiger. Unlike the purchase of Angel Di Maria a year earlier, when Real sold high to raise their own transfer funds, the German was past his best and no longer a first team regular. Essentially, it was an admission to Bayern that he may no longer be good enough for you, but he’s good enough for us. You don’t catch up the top teams by buying their cast offs, and the German was a passenger as Wolfsburg passed him by in midweek.
Rooney himself is also a worry, having failed to ever really get going under van Gaal. Perhaps he is in decline, but perhaps it is simply that United’s current tactics fail to provide him a platform from which he can really play. Without him performing, there is no real goal threat and nobody to frighten defences like United teams of old.
But van Gaal retains the support of the United board, even if, as polls this week suggest, the fans are more sceptical. The amount of money he has been given to spend to achieve a similar win percentage, albeit better league position than his predecessor, suggests David Moyes was never truly supported, the pick of the departing Ferguson rather than the board themselves. Had Moyes been given hundreds of millions to spend on players, he too may have kept them in the top four.
Results generally have been OK. They aren’t scaring anyone, but on the whole they’re getting the job done against the weaker teams. The key question asks for how long that will be enough for a club of this size. At the moment both van Gaal and United themselves seem to be scraping by on reputation alone. Even before this week’s nadir, improvement was needed. Now it seems even more urgent.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hugo Saye is an English journalist who spent nine months in Jamaica shadowing 2012-2013 National Premier League champions Harbour View FC, where he spoke openly with stars of both sport and politics and discovered the importance of football in the Caribbean island, which formed the background of his book, Of Garrisons and Goalscorers.