Style of Football
Whether something is boring or not is usually subjective and
purely opinion, but Manchester United's style of play has been irrefutably dull
- one of the major concerns of the Van Gaal era. Stats more than back up the
cries of 'Attack, Attack, Attack!' we have heard ring from the Stretford
End. If goals are a measure of entertainment, Red Devil fans have been
sentenced to death by boredom. United have the scored the fewest number of
goals in the Top 6, they are 13th in the league for most shots per game, they
have played the highest percentage of backwards passes in the Premier League and
they have participated in more goal-less draws than any other English team in
the season (6).
The players seem fearful of misplacing a forward pass and
when approaching the opposition box the players are wary of shooting to upset
the rigid thought-process of their manager - it is painful watching this
slow, safety-first approach by a club historically famed for exciting,
fast-paced, whole-hearted football. It feels as though Van Gaal has put a
footballing straitjacket on the players, inhibiting their natural attacking
instincts so it is no coincidence forward players like Di Maria, Memphis,
Januzaj, Falcao and even Van Persie have struggled under his tutelage.
Manchester United fans used to enjoy watching matches, now
they just endure them.
Ineffective Use of Players
A frustration of both fans and the players themselves is how
Van Gaal has used the players at his disposal this season. Morgan Schneiderlin
is one for instance he came in with a reputation of being one of the best
holding midfielders in the league with no other midfielder having made more
interceptions in the Premier League over the last 3 seasons. Remarkably,
Manchester United have only lost 2 games out of the 26 he has started this
season showing just how crucial he is to the club's success this season. Yet
his exquisite reading of the game from the middle has been under-appreciated by
Van Gaal, in the horror Christmas fixture phase with back-to-back losses to
Wolfsburg, Bournemouth, Norwich and Stoke - Schneiderlin was not on the pitch
for a single minute. Andreas Pereira, last season's U21 Player of the Year for
Manchester United, has played just 4 small cameos in the Premier League and has
not even started an FA Cup game. Every time he plays he exudes confidence, he
has shown tremendous creativity and maturity in the final third, lauded as
arguably the best young talent in Manchester United's youth grades but Van Gaal
has failed to give him the opportunity to show the outstanding potential he
really has. Adnan Januzaj is another, he was brought back from his loan spell
at Borussia Dortmund at the end of December, yet he has played 15 minutes in 2
sub appearances since - he is yet another passenger in Van Gaal's era of
baffling management.
Record Against Smaller Teams
Sometimes stats can justify things just on their own.
Against the Premier League's bottom half (10 sides), Manchester United have
gained 21 points out of 45 points, and only 11 points out of a possible 27
against the bottom 6 Premier League sides. For a club which should be
challenging for the league title and be within the Top 4, those results are
unforgivable. It is a trait which even haunted Van Gaal last season, early
season points were dropped against Swansea, Sunderland, Burnley, Leicester
(then fighting relegation) and West Brom derailing any potential title
challenge alongside a humiliating loss against MK Dons. West Brom beat
Manchester United only a few weeks ago, usually there would be an uproar and it
being labelled as a real upset, but now it is just a, run-of-the-mill result,
epitomising how low United have sunk under his tenure.
Irrespective of how good Louis Van Gaal's record is against
the Top 6, a manager with that abysmal a record against lesser teams, a club
like Manchester United expects to beat given their resources and ambition,
should not be given another year to further illustrate the same tactical
deficiencies.
Illogical Substitutions
Usually, substitutions are a key reflection on the tactical
awareness and footballing intelligence of a manager. If used effectively,
substitutions can salvage games from losing positions, win games petering
out to draws and secure all 3 points when in a winning position. For instance,
logic for any avid footballer fan when a team is losing would be to put an
attacking / creative player on capable of injecting some life into a
performance by creating or scoring a goal in the place of a tiring or less
attacking outlet. Unfortunately, logic and Van Gaal are two words often not
paired together. Frustratingly, substitutes have been more counter-productive
than actually changing the course of affairs in a positive manner. It is so
farcical that it is now almost laughable the amount of times this season we
have seen a defender being substituted for a defender i.e. Matteo Darmian
coming on for Guillermo Varela against West Ham whilst level at 1-1. We have
also seen a not so dissimilar trend with midfielders, with the likes of Michael
Carrick for Bastian Schweinsteiger. All these wasted substitutions for the Red
Devils' fans culminate the likes of Andreas Pereira and Adnan Januzaj as well
as other attackers on the bench being unfairly under-used. Van Gaal has even
mirrored Tony Pulis' Stoke when he lumps Marouane Fellaini on as a ‘Plan B’ target
man to have long balls aimlessly launched at - the less spoken about that the
better.
If any substitution epitomises the mind-boggling
decision-making of Louis Van Gaal which has alienated players and fans alike,
it is the substitution of Juan Mata for Nick Powell, despite having been absent
out of the first team for 16 months, in the pivotal Champions League deciding
game against Wolfsburg. Bizarre.
Youth Policy Myth at United
One of the major selling points of Louis Van Gaal as
Manchester United manager in the media and by fans has been the amount of youth
he has blooded into the first team, he has given debuts to 7 academy players
this season, continuing the proud traditions of the club. However, is this
influx of youth a real Van Gaal masterplan or is it in truth something which
has been done out of necessity?
Manchester United have had 60 separate injuries this season,
there was even a point in the season where there were simultaneous injuries to
crucial players which would otherwise star in Manchester United's first team (De
Gea; Darmian, Jones, Rojo, Shaw; Valencia, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Young;
Rooney & Martial). Whether that's down to intense training methods or pure
misfortune is up for debate, but what is not up for debate is that this has
dramatically forced Van Gaal's hand in his squad selection.
Would these players really have been played and given the
opportunity to flourish without injuries? The consistent exclusion of Andreas
Pereira and Adnan Januzaj suggest otherwise.
Since December, Louis Van Gaal has lost as many games as
recently sacked manager Steve McClaren who has put Newcastle deeper into
relegation trouble. This abysmal stat alone would amaze onlookers as to how the
manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world still has a job, especially so
since a tailor-made replacement, one of football's elite managers in Jose
Mourinho is currently sitting in his London home without a job. This Manchester
United season of frustration, boredom and never ending disappointment should be
enough to convince Ed Woodward and co that change is undoubtedly necessary.
Should Van Gaal stay as Manchester United manager for the
2016/17 season? No way José.
By Hesham Bilal-Hafiz (@hesham786)
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