da leao： Manchester United’s season has been a strange one. Certainly it is not the type of season the club has been used to. Van Gaal’s men are still on course for a Champions League spot, but they haven’t sparkled much all season.
da brwin： United’s has been a functional season. It has been built on one and two-nil wins. They have kept a solid defence in spite of appearing weak at the back and scored the requisite goals to win games.
However, they’ve rarely played well for more than brief spells in games. They’ve put function over form; moments of beauty have been few and far between.
Yet for all the gloom surrounding them over the last few seasons, for all the criticism of both of Sir Alex Ferguson’s successors, United are making progress and a Champions League place for next year would be progress indeed.
A return to Europe’s elite after a one-year absence would not only boost the club’s finances, but would persuade the fans that the club is back on track – not that the fans truly believed that the club would fade into the background anyway.
The Red Devils now sit 5 points above 5th place, so Champions League looks more of a ‘probability’ than a ‘possibility’ at this point – especially given how grinding out results seems almost ingrained in United’s DNA.
Functional though they’ve been, they’ve lacked a spark. A certain beauty has been lacking from Old Trafford all season. For reasons known only to Louis Van Gaal, Juan Mata has been conspicuous by his absence.
But Mata has come back in recent games. Against both Spurs and Liverpool – two wins that may just have sealed a Champions League spot for United – he was United’s best player. He has provided the spark that’s been missing all season.
Almost everyone in the country has been bewildered by Mata’s exclusion from the Old Trafford starting XI this season. He was imperious for several seasons, carrying an under-par Chelsea to 3rd in the league and a European trophy almost by himself.
But it seems he was considered too much of a luxury by Jose Mourinho, not a player like Willian and Oscar who will track back and help the defence. So no matter how good he can be going forward, he just didn’t fit into Mourinho’s team ethic. And so he was ostricised.
[ad_pod id=’football-friends’ align=’center’]
And that’s the fate that came to him again with the arrival of Louis Van Gaal.
Van Gaal is something of a philosopher. He is clearly a very intelligent man, and you always get the feeling that he’s trying to teach you something when you listen to his press conferences. But the most important thing to take from his first season in charge at United is just how clear his idea is of how he wants his team to play.
His approach emphasises the value of possession. His defence may not look solid, but that doesn’t matter if the opposition don’t have the ball. He forces his players to play with their brains as much as with their feet. An approach which is very new to his players.
In fact, they’ve performed admirably in adapting so quickly to this new style of play. Liverpool and Everton have tweaked things slightly this season and both teams struggled early on – with the Toffees still languishing – but United have managed to sit near the top all season.
Van Gaal has caused some bewilderment by starting to play Mata only now, but given the change in system, I don’t think it’s that surprising. Van Gaal told the press he would need 3 months to bed in and get his team to play his way. In reality it maybe took him double that. But here they are with one foot in the door of the Champions League, so the delay certainly won’t bother him.
Now that the team has started to play his way, Van Gaal can afford a luxury in his team, and Mata has been allowed to add a sparkle to United’s attacking play. The functionality is still there, but there’s beauty to be had in Mata’s triumphant return.
[ad_pod id=’ffc-video’ align=’center’]