Manchester United have spent heavy cash under the management of Louis van Gaal and have failed to live up to the expectations. Highly likely, United are going to finish outside top four and the Dutch manager should take all the blame.
Lately, the Red Devils boss has been praised for one major positive this season i.e. the introduction of talented youngsters in the first team. Legendary defender Rio Ferdinand claimed (ESPN):
“Louis van Gaal’s legacy — if he is going to have one when he leaves — is the introduction of all these young boys, with [Marcus] Rashford leading the charge.”
The truth is that Louis van Gaal deserves no credit and had no other option but to introduce the youngsters because of his stupid transfer decisions and the the injury concerns.
Attack:
LVG let go four strikers like Wilson (loan), Hernandez, Robin van Persie and Falcao last summer and then signed only one player i.e. Anthony Martial hoping to strengthen the strike-force and even the French international is not an out and out striker.
Eventually the strike-force lacked depth with only Rooney and Martial around. Once the skipper got injured, Louis van Gaal suffered a huge set back and had no other option but to give Rashford the chance. Only common sense to keep him in the side after brilliant performances by the teenager.
Another blunder was to sell a World Class player in Angel Di Maria. Even bigger blunder was to replace him with young Memphis Depay. The Dutch international proved to be consistently average and Lingard got his chance. Not to forget, Louis van Gaal loaned Januzaj in the summer and then called him back in mid-season mainly because of the injury concerns.
Defense:
The likes of Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Guillermo Varela have been effective for the Red Devils when needed. However, the duo only got their first team opportunities due to heavy injury concerns in the defense.
The likes of Darmian and Valencia (winger) were out injured and Varela got his chance in the right back position, featured in four league games. On the other hand, Shaw, Rojo and even Ashley Young (winger) were out and that gave Cameron the chance to shine in the left back position.
The duo are nowhere to be found in the first team now. Varela played his last league game in March and Cameron played his in February.
Overall:
Louis van Gaal has spent around £250m (Mirror) since joining the club in 2014 and after spending that heavy a sum, a club should at least be fighting for the title. However, United have under-performed big time and even winning the FA Cup will not hide their failures.
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LVG would never have given the youngsters a chance to play ..it was all due to injuries. He did not have a choice. He is a stupid arrogant manager and he needs to retire from soccer. He will make a bigger fool of himself if he stays for another season. We must get rid of Ed Woodward at the same time.
Totally agree with the column , lvg was forced by injuries to field the youngesters especially in the defence where he has failed to sign back up full backs of premier league standard despite being at united for two full seasons , in the attack you can forgive him for letting go of hernandez , wilson and falcao as they didn’t fit his style, as for parsie there isn’t any justification, same goes for di maria who was bought , not managed well and let go for on a lower fee , he hasn’t utilised any of the number 10 s properly and his handling of periera and januzaj is nothing short of a disaster