A night to forget as Louis van Gaal plan unravels again

Manchester United’s swash has well and truly buckled.

The Europa League? It might as well be called the Sherpa Van Gaal Trophy, for all the romance that competition will generate for an increasingly disenchanted Stretford End.

Even allowing for the injuries, youth and inexperience which were all factors in their 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg last night, United can have no complaints about a result which, ultimately, cast a harsh and unforgiving light on the sheer mind-numbing ordinariness of the current side.