Louis Van Gaal’s half-term report

With half of the season already behind us, now is a good time to look at LvG’s start to life at Manchester United and how successful he has been so far.

Take it back to August, and after a promising pre-season, it’s fair to say United were shocking – failing to win any of their opening three premier league fixtures, made far worse by the infamous 4-0 humiliation at the hands of League One MK Dons. Whether it was Van Gaal getting to grips with the premier league or the players failing to gel following the busy summer transfer window – or a combination of both – we don’t know, but the outcome was, well, let’s be nice and say not up to scratch.

What followed was two months of inconsistency; some brilliance mixed with some comical displays, epitomised by the excellent first half and abysmal second half in the 5-3 loss to Leicester. It seemed that Van Gaal struggled to know his best team, or even his best system, and that the premier league’s fierce competition from all clubs had shocked him. Despite this, the promise from the periods of excellent play was enough to show what this team was capable of and gave fans hope going in to November.

Source: manutd.com

Then came the 2-1 win away at Arsenal, and that is what changed United’s fortunes. This was the second win in a row for United, and an away win (their first of the season) at a fellow team challenging for the top 4 was a massive result. It gave such confidence to the team and ended up being a trigger for a great run of form.

That was the second game of an 11 match unbeaten run that is still ongoing, a truly remarkable feat considering where United were in August. Van Gaal has found his feet in England, has figured out his best team and is now using it to good effect. The run has pleased fans massively, and watching United has once again become something we can enjoy, rather than worry about.

Despite this, there are still problems. Our away form is still sub-standard, with just two away wins all season. Recent games like Stoke and Aston Villa were typical of United’s away performances this season – not enough creativity and unable to grind out a result when it’s needed. Manchester United need to be winning these type of games if they’re going to get anywhere near Chelsea and Man. City.

And as LvG keeps saying, United seem unable to control the game for 90 minutes. Only twice during this unbeaten run have United really dominated an opponent, against Hull and Newcastle, and this needs to improve if they are to comfortably secure a top 4 spot.

Louis Van Gaal had a very poor start to life as Manchester United manager; poor results and bad performances were everywhere and the inconsistency in the team was frustrating to say the least. But having gone 11 games unbeaten, United are definitely on the up, despite the problems that still exist. If you’d have offered 3^rd place and an 11 game unbeaten run to fans at the start of the season they would have taken it with open arms, and that’s a very good measure of how LvG has done.

I think he’s been a good manager overall; there have been bad patches and he took a while to settle down, but he has done a good job to get us to 3^rd place. But the exciting thing for fans is that there is certainly room for improvement.