Whilst Louis Van Gaal’s arrival at Old Trafford was met with a great deal of positivity, he’s quickly managed to alienate fans and pundits alike. His recent victory over West Ham will help his standing, but I think it’s fair to say that he’s still got a lot of people to win over.
The main issue seems to be that he’s failed to bring balance to Manchester United’s squad. For an experienced manager to focus so heavily on bolstering his attacking line-up, without so much as a second thought for his defence is a huge mistake. Injuries have already started to ravage his side and The Red Devils look ill-equipped to deal with their current situation.
For this, I think Van Gaal needs to take a considerable amount of responsibility. But let’s not get carried away. He’s still a significantly better manager than David Moyes and there’s still a very good chance that he’s going to make a major impact at Old Trafford.
It’s time for fans to get behind him and the club as a whole. For instance, I think he deserves more backing when it comes to how he’s handled Luke Shaw.
There’s no doubt that Luke Shaw is a big talent and it’s natural for fans to want to see their new big-money signing in action. But if Van Gaal felt that the former Southampton star wasn’t ready, then it was obviously for a good reason. The Dutchman gets to see all his players in action during training sessions and is in the best position to judge who’s ready to play and who isn’t.
He doesn’t decide who makes it into his starting XI on a whim. Everything’s carefully calculated and well reasoned. Van Gaal said that Shaw couldn’t ‘perform’ how he wanted, so he didn’t make the cut.
Even the player himself seems to agree with his manager’s diagnosis. Check out his recent comments: “He was right to say what he said about me in pre-season. We had a discussion then and the plan for me was to get my fitness up. It worked, apart from the injury.” (Source: The Express)
Like Van Gaal, Luke Shaw has a long career ahead of him at Manchester United. In the long-run, I think he’s going to be better off as a result of The Dutchman’s comments.
With that in mind, maybe it’s time we all got off Louis Van Gaal’s back?
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