Another goalless draw and, save about ten minutes near the game’s end, it was a listless, uninspiring attack on display at Old Tafford. United aren’t scoring and, quote them all you want, it isn’t the lack of chances being created: It’s the lack of quality chances being generated.
Lobbing balls from distance for a look at a 50/50 ball isn’t a quality chance. Putting a ball between the defender and the keeper with a forward running onto it is. Crossing the ball toward the middle where no United players are likely to be located isn’t a quality chance. Running the ball out wide and deep before a cross to several players collapsing on goal is. Two of these examples are typically United. Two are not.
Hopefully you’ve gotten that right.
United missed an opportunity to move up the table and, save Leicester’s win at Swansea, could have been top of the league after City stumbled against the Potters. It’s not just United, but it seems all these clubs near the top are refusing to take the initiative to capitalize on the rests’ deficiencies and largely explains Leicester’s place up top. What’s so wrong with United? Rooney didn’t feature and, after weeks of being target number one for the blame on that front, he missed today’s match with no change to United’s scoring ineptitude.
Fans are starting to turn on van Gaal. Despite van Gaal’s recent dismissal of the attack chants, they were in full chorus again. No shortage of boos rained down on the team, if not van Gaal exclusively, as the team walked off the pitch.
As I alluded to previously, possession football means nothing if the advantage it gives doesn’t translate into goals. And goals won’t materialize if your striker and forwards aren’t getting the quality chances they need. Those chances are increased exponentially if the service being provided is quality. United are too predictable in the attack and the “chances” too easy to defend because the service is lacking. They’re leaving too much to the forward to do. It’s not to suggest that the forwards and strikers are blameless, nor that they shouldn’t be expected to generate their own opportunities as much as their support should; but when a team enters December without much progression in their struggles to score, who else but the manager can be blamed?
Clearly, the system isn’t working on a whole. Is it a bad system? No, I don’t think so. Despite my reservations about the quality of their back line to contend with Europe’s biggest and best clubs, they own the best defensive record in the league and that alone is the only reason they’re still in fourth. On that virtue, the system is proving its worth. But to reiterate, it needs to work on a whole. And it isn’t.
So why is this?
Van Gaal is your typically stubborn Dutchman. I know it. I’m pretty stubborn and I have Dutch blood coursing through my veins. Self admittedly, he says he’s tough to convince when ideas for improvement aren’t consistent with his ‘philosophy’ and that it takes a compelling argument to achieve a change in his opinion. At least he leaves the door open to such…
Though I speculate here, I feel he’s made the mistake of employing a system and then forcing his options to adapt. We saw it last year when injuries riddled the back end. Instead of changing it, he converted players like Valencia and Young into makeshift wing backs. It worked to variable success. Success if you see their fourth place showing as goal achieved. Less so if you realize that the difference in points from a year before, where they finished a dismal 7th before van Gaal’s appointment, was literally two games and achieved with only one more win.
So really, it was about converting losses into draws. Is van Gaal the draw master?
Joking aside, since his take over and that forgettable season, van Gaal has slowly increased the point total on a per match basis. Despite that, he sits reasonably well enough below two points per match and that isn’t good enough. You have to go back to the 96/97 season to find a Premier League champion, unsurprisingly United, that averaged less than two points per match. While this season could be a repeat of that feat, the point (no pun intended) is that it doesn’t happen often.
Back on point. I feel United’s struggles to score is van Gaal’s attempts to mold players to function in this system hasn’t worked up top. I find his comments today which suggested, had United a player like Suarez or Aguero, they’d be scoring. It’s insulting to Martial who, on a day to day basis, is consistently one of United’s best players. To me, it’s van Gaal blaming the last guy out there for these issues and avoiding the blame himself. I thought Martial was solid today and his inability to score wasn’t for lack of effort when the ball was put on his feet.
No, I think van Gaal knows better. What I don’t know is if he realizes he has too many players existing in positions they aren’t naturally suited to, be it positionally or stylistically. Instead of being well oiled cogs in the machine, they are anything but. Sometimes they get the engine to turn over and run, other times they break down and stall it. In his stubbornness, he forces this system to work by forcing players to function in it. Why not identify your player’s strengths and adapt a system to exploit those strengths? Sir Alex did this, often to success.
In my opinion, nowhere is this more visible on the right flank where United lack the natural winger it requires. Mata is good. Some days he is brilliant. But his style of play isn’t suited if you ask me. He likes to drift in and play give&goes or short crosses. He also prefers to lay back on the opposite flank to the ball and look for errant clearances or rebounds as opposed to in tight where physicality isn’t a forte of his.
What United truly need is a pacey winger who can cross accurately and score when called upon – such as a Memphis cross from the left because he will actually attack the open space near the front of the goal. This would widen the pitch and complicate the efforts of the opposition to collapse into a compact defensive posture. Mata’s style plays into this and forces him to make much from little or pass back with limited to no viable options laterally or forward.
You almost wonder how he fits into this system, if you agree with what I’m saying. If not a winger, where does he go? Into the ten? He hasn’t been entirely brilliant there in his opportunities. Then what about Rooney? Or Herrera if not covering for Schneiderlin? What of the equally lost Fellaini in this system? Too many questions which begs another…
Is it time to sell Mata for the right offer? I’d lean to yes at this point if that quality winger can be found this winter. Fellaini’s sale is another, albeit less troubling, idea for transfer. His aerial presence and physicality are things United can use, but they’re not and lacking it on the pitch isn’t what’s killing United’s goal tally.
It’s something van Gaal will really need to address if I’m asked. I see viable and quality options out there come this summer who tick the boxes for requirements and are young enough to warrant such an investment. Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez, and Ajax’s Anwar El Gahzi immediately come to mind. Another option, less so an investment, is Arjen Robben. I could even see Bayern entertaining a sale this winter. Perhaps a recall of Januzaj to provide depth to such an addition? Sorry when I say, but Lingard (for all the strides he’s made this year) still isn’t quite there to fill in on the right.
Whatever the case, one thing is for sure and that’s we shouldn’t expect a change in system from van Gaal as long as he’s here. I think this is okay so as long as they get out there and engage in more aggressive appraoches to bring in the quality options we need to make it function in the attacking half – even if it means letting players go for no lack of quality or effort like Mata. Fortunately for United, the schedule remains soft until the new year by comparison and I see no reason their injury riddled back line can’t continue to hold the fort as is.
United have the cash. They’re still in a position to win the League. The essence of the timing couldn’t be more clear.
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