Van Gaal Risks Alienating Fans & Sabotaging United’s Season

Can you believe we’ve only lost one game in the last 17?

As I watched the 95 minutes against West Ham yesterday, I was disappointed not just with the lack of 3 points, but more importantly how our team performed (or didn’t). Before the Hammers went 1-0 up, we were dreadful, and it could have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been for De Gea, yet again.

In the first half of the season I had a lot of sympathy for Van Gaal – we had our worst injuries for many a season and he was working on bedding in new players whilst getting to grips with the Premier League and managing Manchester United. Early signs were positive, with some good attacking football. Although results were mixed, I think most of us felt that once our defence got sorted, we would be in good shape, and never really doubted our prospects of a top 4 finish.

What’s worrying is that LVG came with a reputation of playing exciting, attacking football, but watching United at the moment, and looking at Giggs in the dugout, it doesn’t look like anyone quite gets what Van Gaal’s philosophy is. The possession football is all very well and good if it produces goals and wins, but this slow build up play is not getting us anywhere, and we have become frighteningly predictable.

We seem to have no pace to our play, no off-the-ball movement, and, in truth, a complete lack of attacking ideas. Personally, I don’t really understand what’s going on – you look at the line up before a game and you think “how can this 11 not rip the other team apart?!” and then you sit back and watch these same 11 top players totally underperform and play as if they have just met each other in the warm up.

How can Di Maria go from a truly great player for both Real Madrid and Argentina to a player lacking confidence and impact? Falcao – one of the world’s most feared strikers – can’t seem to hit a barn door, and RVP is also obviously lacking in belief and offering minimal movement up front. Rooney is being played out of position, and whilst he always gives 100%, he is still a forward, and would do a better job up front than either RVP or Falcao is doing right now. Maybe if LVG gave that a try, with Herrera on the right side of midfield, we may see more of a cutting edge to our football.

As United fans, all we want is for our manager and team to succeed and entertain. We want LVG to succeed. We are not a club that likes too much change, and the last time we were changing our boss every five minutes was a trophyless period which none uf us want to repeat. However, LVG has to get this right and fast – we absolutely have to finish in the top 4, but the way we are playing right now doesn’t fill us with hope.