Eight months after arriving at Old Trafford the Louis van Gaal Manchester United had been expecting all along finally appeared.
On a sunlit day at Anfield Van Gaal delivered a signature performance with a dominant 2-1 win over Liverpool.
Here finally was a display the Dutchman could proudly hold aloft as evidence of what his United side are capable of in the Premier League.
This was football from the Van Gaal who had carved out his reputation at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
His success at all his previous clubs had been built on a 4-3-3 formation, and the principles of possession and attacking football.
So far at Old Trafford this season, there have been glimpses of the old Van Gaal, but too few, and too fleeting.
The results have been largely welcome, especially since the start of November, but too often the football has been pedestrian and unfulfilling.
Van Gaal has grappled with different formations, and different players, but now he has returned to his back catalogue of success to help United prosper this season.
As Van Gaal told The Daily Telegraph last week, ““The system we play now is the system that I prefer, that I have played everywhere. [4-3-3] is my preferred system.”
Playing this formation, United’s performance in their 3-0 win over Tottenham last weekend offered hope, but proved to be just an enticing warm-up to their even more impressive display at Anfield on Sunday.
Van Gaal even resisted the temptation to bring back Angel Di Maria, a player he had spent a record fee of £59.7 million on, and wisely kept faith with the starting line-up who had brushed aside Tottenham.
It immediately worked as United swarmed all over Liverpool, and in the first 15 minutes had 69 percent possession at Anfield.
By the end this would drop to a still impressive 58 percent, but despite a late rally by Liverpool, United were able to nullify their opponents and control most of the game.
This was against a Liverpool side who hadn’t lost in the Premier League in 2015, and were unbeaten in their last 13 league games.
And yet they couldn’t cope with United’s pressing football, and how quickly and astutely they moved the ball around the field.
The day was also a personal triumph for Juan Mata and Ander Herrera, a pair Van Gaal has struggled to find a role for this season.
Mata scored twice, the second probably United’s finest goal of the season, while his contributions from the right side of the forward three proved he can prosper beyond the No. 10 role.
It was a landmark performance from Herrera too, who was both industrious and direct with his passing, none more so than when he provided the assist for Mata’s first goal.
There have been doubts over the future of the Spanish duo for most of this season, which must surely have been banished now.
Mata and Herrera will be at Old Trafford next season, but how many of the 11 who started at Anfield will take to the pitch for United’s opening game of next season?
The most promising aspect of Sunday’s win for United is that they played so well, and yet there remains enormous room for even further improvement.
I would suggest as many as six players who started at Anfield on Sunday might have to make way for more accomplished players.
There are vacancies across the entire United back four.
Antonio Valencia has performed ably for United at right-back, but he is a winger filling in, and Van Gaal will seek to replace him with a specialist defender in the summer.
The recruitment of an experienced central defender remains Van Gaal’s most pressing concern, and so only one of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling will be retained to partner them.
Even at left-back Sunday’s starter Daley Blind, a crucial cog in Van Gaal’s teams, could be moved elsewhere, with Luke Shaw remaining the long-term option in that position.
Though Michael Carrick has just signed a new one-year contract and Van Gaal is a fan, he will be looking for a more dynamic central midfielder in the summer.
So far this season Van Gaal has brilliantly utilised Marouane Fellaini, and revived his United career, but here he will also be attempting to bring in a better passer of the ball with more mobility to deploy on the left side of midfield.
In the front three, Mata and Rooney will be retained, while Ashley Young is certain to be replaced with Angel Di Maria, as he was in the second half at Anfield on Sunday.
This is not to suggest these players will be completely discarded, but rather they will evolve in to squad players instead of starters.
In a transitional and at times underwhelming season Van Gaal has still managed to lift United into the top four, and currently they sit only two points behind second-placed Manchester City.
More importantly it bodes well for Van Gaal that he has achieved all of this with a group of players at least half of whom can so obviously be improved upon.
Having finally found his formation, and now being ready to fill it with a series of upgrades this summer, Van Gaal should feel even more like his old self next season.
No comments:
Post a Comment