The many sins of Louis van Gaal…and why he should leave

I was one of those who threw my hat in the ring in support of Louis van Gaal’s appointment as Manchester United manager 18 months ago because I’d followed his career from the Ajax of the mid-90s, to Barcelona and PSV and to the Dutch national team and I was convinced if there was anybody ready-made to wean Manchester United of the nightmare that life had become under David Moyes, it must be this man that doesn’t conform to rules.

However, halfway into his three year contract, I shudder to think that we (Man United fans) will have to endure another season and half of the rudderlessness and lack of visible and measurable progress under the Dutchman.

So, I know you want to ask, how and why did I go from being a staunch member of the LvG Fans Club to leader of his boo-boys?

It’s really simple when you take a step back, shed your toga of blind loyalty to the club and look at how the club has fared under van Gaal.

In no particular order, I will start my inquisition thusly. United, at the last count, had spent a total of £870m on players transfer. Of that figure, van Gaal alone has committed as much as £256.6m or about 29.4% of the total amount spent so far. David Moyes, in his one season misadventure, spent £67.7 or some 7.7% while Sir Alex accounted for the remaining £554m or 63%.

In ordinary terms, LvG has spent over a quarter of the total amount in just two years and he next logical thing is to ask yourself if the achievement on ground matches that quantum of investment. If you ask LvG himself, the team has progressed well under him.

Hear him: ‘I don’t want to mention the positive achievement under me. I could say them all but I won’t want to [be seen to be] defending myself. This club has to win I know that. But you have to analyse the club now to where it was 10 years ago. There has been an evolution in European football since then and you can make your own opinions about it.’

Well, if van Gaal must know, 10 years ago United had finished the previous season behind Chelsea and by December were running neck and neck with Mourinho’s men for the league title until the Blues pulled away to retain their title at the end of the season.

Apart from the money spent which has not justified investment, in my opinion, is also the small matter of what exactly does LvG want to achieve with the club and how does he intend to go about it.

The Dutchman came to Old Trafford with a pen and folder and mouthed how he wanted United to replicate all the great sides he’d managed in the past and talked copiously about his vaunted ‘philosophy’ which we thought was going to blow everybody away.

He started with his much-talked about 3-5-2 formation but early disastrous results forced him to back-track and quickly changed to a more traditional 4-3-3 with two holding midfielders. The end result is that United, in almost all the games they’ve played this season, have had a majority of possession from the middle but because they play in a particular way which inhibits creativity and adventure, they are usually short of ideas by the time they get into the opposition box. They are forced to pass sideways rather than forward and this makes it very easy for opposing teams to defend well against them.

United are always looking for the defence-splitting pass that would make it all come together but, as we have seen more often than not, the pass rarely comes and when it does there’s usually no one to latch on and make it count. Anthony Martial’s open miss against Bournemouth clearly illustrates the point I’m trying to make here.

I’m not sure there are many matches in which United have been out-played in terms of possession this season but, pray, what’s the use of majority possession if you cannot translate that dominance into victories.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with possession-based football but it has to have an outlet which results into goal. One just have to watch Barcelona, Bayern Munich and, lately, Arsenal to appreciate the beauty of possession football which is pleasing to the eye. They build up with slow and steady passing around the pitch but in a forward direction and, within a twinkle, would burst into a quick acceleration and do maximum damage.

This was probably what I saw way back in September when I wrote on this page, in the article titled “C.RONALDO AND THREE THINGS MAN UNITED FANS SHOULD FORGET (FOR NOW)”  that: “…if you ask my honest opinion, I just have the sneaky feeling that pitted against Europe’s best, this current United squad will not be able to measure up. Except we are kidding ourselves, United are not in the same class as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.”

Writing that, I didn’t know that United will not even be able to qualify from a group comprising lightweights Wolfsburg, PSV Eindhoven and CSKA Moscow. If Man United had been in the same group with Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, the argument would have been that United are a team in transition BUT against the likes of CSKA and Wolfsburg, with all due respects, I feel like kicking somebody because that’s totally unacceptable.

This shows, more than anything else, a lack of quality in the forward line and calls into question van Gaal’s decision-making in allowing Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez to leave at the beginning of the season and youngster James Wilson who was sent on loan last month to Brighton & Hove Albion for the rest of the season.

As it happened, Wilson has scored two goals in just three games for Brighton while Chicharito has scored an incredible 17 goals in 20 games for Bayer Leverkusen, including an amazing hat-trick in 13 minutes around the same time Man United were labouring to a 2-1 loss at Bournemouth.

The question I keep asking and failing to get a response is why Chicharito had to be sold. For what purpose and in whose interest was the Mexican off-loaded? Yea, I do not hide the fact that I like his game and even named my son after him but what you cannot take away from the player, after you’ve finished accusing me of favouritism, is that Chicharito’s goals return deserved to have him playing and regularly too in this United side, not railroaded to a Bundesliga side where, luckily for him, he’s proving his critics wrong and making those who took the decision to sell him look silly.

If we excused, just for the sake of argument, the sale of Chicharito the same cannot be said of the exit of Angel Di Maria. His speed and ability would have been priceless in this lethargic side which often come across as lacking in ideas and short on creativity. Again, his sale calls into question how deals are done and for what purpose at Old Trafford.

I also agree with LvG when he said in another interview that: “They (critics) say a club like Manchester United has to win. That’s the past. We have to analyse where we are. I think you can also say that there were a lot of positive things. But when you don’t want to see them that’s not my problem.”

As a matter of fact, I’d argued in the article I referred to earlier that United’s days of total dominance was over as the influx of money has blurred the wide gap which existed between the Reds and other teams in the early days of the Premier League.

I had said: Sir Alex was the answer to all of Man United’s dreams and the majority of the period between 1993 and 2001 and then briefly between 2005 to 2008 underlined how one club could be so utterly dominant that it put all other teams in the shade.

United, despite winning England’s first Champions Cup (renamed Champions League) never really dominated English football as there were always more than two or three clubs competing for honours but, at the dawn of the Premier League, United became the sole superpower such that it won as many as 13 of 23 league titles.

So, my dear United fans hoping to see that wonderful time when our club will return to being the sole superpower in football may have to wait forever for a day that may not come anytime soon. No one club will have that honour again. Not now. Not ever.

So I won’t crucify LvG for saying what is a fact which everyone ought to know by now and take as an article of faith. However, I take exception to the impression that United have a side as strong as that of Manchester City or even Arsenal. As a matter of fact, I will rate United behind Tottenham this season in terms of quality of play. You can choose to look at the Premier League table and say I’m wrong but I will only advise that you come back to that same league table at the end of the season and see what it would tell you.

So, what is the realistic expectation from van Gaal’s team this season, with everything factored in?  What would constitute a good season for United now?

If you’d asked me at the end of August, probably I would have said there’s no reason why they shouldn’t go all the way especially with Chelsea’s early season blues.

But as things stand now, I will be magnanimous and wager a fourth position finish for United although Van Gaal stubbornly insists his team is still in the title race, just four points behind leaders Arsenal in fourth place.

But I’m sure that United, on the back of current performances, are lucky to still be in the top four and that is down to the bizarre nature of the current season where ‘strange’ teams like Leicester, Crystal Palace and Watford are making a strong showing while the traditional teams are floundering.

If Chelsea and Manchester City were doing well, they would have been out of sight of Man United by the end of December.

So, as it is, a good run in the FA Cup as well as a Champions League spot will be adequate recompense for the team’s effort so far. Anything more than that will be a massive over-achievement but if there’s something I’ve learnt about LvG, it is never to trust him, his vaunted philosophy, his notebook in which he’s perpetually writing, and his cocky confidence.

I may appear harsh but LvG has not earned my trust and I have no apology for that

December 14, 2015