Five conclusions from a Man United win that did not quite produce the performance Louis van Gaal would have wanted.
Luke Shaw is developing rapidly
It was only a few weeks ago that 19-year-old Luke Shaw was being heavily criticised after showing a considerable lack of form upon signing for Manchester United for £30 million this summer.
That criticism was perhaps justified simply because of how bad his form was – and, similarly, how high his pricetag was.
There is nothing Shaw can do about the latter, of course, but he has certainly improved on the former. It seems his early struggles were largely fitness related and the United left-back produced a man-of-the-match performance against Crystal Palace yesterday.
Shaw will face far more testing opponents – but, against Palace, he threatened going forward and let nothing past him at the back.
Juan Mata 1-0 Louis van Gaal
The case of Juan Mata is an intriguing one. Is it ego that is stopping Van Gaal from using him when he has other options available?
Perhaps the Dutchman doesn’t want someone else’s marquee signing in his side (although he doesn’t seem to have that problem with Marouane Fellaini) or perhaps he is acutely aware that great friend and simultaenous rival Jose Mourinho does not rate Mata.
The Spaniard certainly has his flaws and his lack of defensive discipline is certainly a key weakness. On form, however, Mata must be a starter for United. And he proved that – showing Van Gaal up for benching him – when he came on to score the winner against Crystal Palace.
Robin van Persie – finished as a top-class striker?
Things look far less promising, however, for Robin van Persie, which makes it all the more interesting that his manager is so willing to keep faith in him.
Recently, there have been calls to drop the 31-year-old and even suggestions that Van Persie is ‘finished’ at the top level. More often than not, such claims are over the top. Right now, however, you have to wonder with the ‘Flying Dutchman’…
Forward thinking?
Bizarrely under 63-year-old Van Gaal, United all of a sudden look better at the back than going forward. That seems frankly ridiculous due to the defensive injuries the Old Trafford outfit have suffered – combined with the millions they have spent on attacking players.
This is where questions must be asked of Van Gaal and not the players themselves. Was signing the injury-prone Radamel Falcao a mistake? Are Manchester United struggling to accommodate all their attacking talent? And could Angel Di Maria be about to suffer a Mesut Ozil type dip in form?
Ferguson-esque
Whatever the answer to the above questions, no United fan the world across will be unfamiliar with the fact that Van Gaal’s men still won yesterday despite all their evident problems.
And, if that happens, at the end of the day, what else matters?
There is a Sir Alex Ferguson-esque quality to this United side at the moment. They are playing badly but winning when they do. They had not registered a win for over a month prior to yesterday but the unbeaten Chelsea and their Manchester rivals City stood in their way. At the moment, the state of a rather weak Premier League is such that you feel United may be able to make the top four quite easily if they keep beating bottom-half teams without much effort.
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