They are lining up to have a go at Louis van Gaal right now aren’t they? The latest is Michael Owen. The striker, who spent three years at Manchester United between 2009-12, has given a rather damning assessment of how things are going at Old Trafford under Louis van Gaal.
After spending £150m and having the players they have and the stadium – they should be first, second or third. Third should be a bad season.
I don’t think the strikers are performing.
Robin van Persie has gone quiet, he’s scored the odd goal, but he’s not the player he was over the last few years.
They are not functioning as a team and if you don’t function as a team, and your strikers and midfielders aren’t working hard then you’ll concede goals – it’s not just about the defence.’
We think that it’s an accurate reflection of how the team is performing right now.
But Owen talks about the £150m worth of talent and let’s not forget that LvG has hardly had a chance to get them all on the pitch at the same time yet. Of the new recruits Marcos Rojo, Angel di Maria and Daley Blind have all been out for protracted periods until recently.
And while the feel good factor with the Manchester United fans has died down a little, the sense is that they are all still fully behind the manager.
We think that it’s fair game to start judging him in a month when, hopefully, he will have had something like his best team playing together for a month or so. Only then can we see if there is a master plan or whether the boss spent in a rather random and desperate way in the summer. We rather suspect that the former will be true and you will see Manchester United performing as a unit once more.
The biggest question is whether the Manchester United coach will revert to 4 at the back and play Di Maria deeper, as so many onlookers think he should. We think that he will and that Manchester United will go on another decent run from this point onwards.
