Manchester United is a club unsure of itself at the moment.
Unsure of where things went wrong after Sir Alex Ferguson departed. Unsure if they should leap full into modern football or stick to their historic principles. Unsure if they want to play safe or spectacular football.
This much is clear, though: Louis van Gaal’s time has quickly run out as manager and he must go.
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One of the game’s most inventive and confident managers, the Dutchman lacks both qualities right now, and United are struggling to stay at the top end of the Premier League.
A 2-0 loss to Stoke City on Saturday was the Red Devils’ third consecutive Premier League defeat—fourth in a row in all competitions—and they have now gone seven matches without a win. United sits sixth in the table and is in serious danger of finishing outside of the top four and not qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Most of their issues have come in the final third, as evidenced by their haul of 22 goals in 18 league games. Coming into this campaign van Gaal said he didn’t have any issues with his lack of options up front because he could call upon Marouane Fellaini and Wayne Rooney. But the big Belgium has mainly come off the bench and when he has started, most of the times it’s been in midfield. In total, he has just one Premier League goal from his 11 shots.
After selling Robin Van Persie in the summer, van Gaal tipped Rooney to score 20 goals this season. He’ll be lucky if he’s even on the pitch for 20 goals. In desperation, Rooney was left out of the starting 11 against Stoke for what van Gaal called “tactical reasons” only to be brought on at half time. Rooney has only registered two Premier League goals and one assist in 13 games.
LVG has complained he doesn’t have pace but he sold two of United’s quickest players in Javier Hernandez and Angel Di Maria. Hernandez was shipped to Bayer Leverkusen for $8 million pounds. He has 11 goals in 14 games in the Bundesliga. Di Maria moved to PSG for $44 million pounds just a year after United bought him for a British record $59.7 million pounds. The Argentine has had a hand in 10 goals for PSG in his last seven League 1 outings.
That’s two players who possess pace and are in their physical prime that van Gaal found to be surplus to requirements. They are on fire leading the line for other top clubs while United struggles to break modest Premier League teams down. Whether van Gaal struggled to get the best out of them or failed to realize their potential in relation to the players he kept, he is culpable.
What van Gaal was able to hang his hat on earlier in the campaign was the team’s defensive record. Not any longer, though, as United have now conceded two or more goals in three straight Premier League games for the first time since September 2010. In the last 11 matches van Gaal has gone with 10 different combinations at the back.
Van Gaal is living off of his past reputation. If it was David Moyes or anyone else leading United out of the tunnel, this standard and style would be unacceptable.
Moyes spent $67 million pounds on his side and they didn’t perform. Van Gaal has been allowed to spend over three times that and the results aren’t any better. Would you trust him to spend more to fix what is broken when he’s clearly not getting a return on investment and selling valuable players who are performing elsewhere?
No wonder Twitter was ablaze earlier in the week when United vice-chairman Ed Woodward was spotted in London, and the speculation was Jose Mourinho was on the way to save the day.
A man such as Mourinho, with the connections he has to some of the game’s top players, would be a better leader into the future than lame duck van Gaal. He is coming off a bad season with Chelsea and he didn’t handle himself well in the media, which is why you’d buy now when his stock is low. Mourinho will be motivated. He was distraught he didn’t get the job at United when it went to Moyes.
Still Mourinho is not a perfect fit. He’s best known for pragmatic play, not attacking foot-ball. Juan Mata has been Manchester’s best attacking player, and Mourinho hates his lack of defensive awareness which is why he was sold to United from Chelsea in the first place. The Portuguese doesn’t have patience to bring through academy players, something United value dating back to well before the famed class of 1992. Club advisor Sir Bobby Charlton would have to also be convinced as he isn’t a fan of Mourinho’s brash style.
The problem is United need a dance partner before it is too late. When the music stops United could be left standing in big trouble if the chants of “attack” from the terraces fall on deaf ears. Whether it is Mourinho or someone else, Manchester United is in need of a new direction in 2016.
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