Terrace Talk Man United: Louis Van Gaal staves off ‘crisis’ talk for now

Whatever else has been going wrong for Louis Van Gaal, these days, he still has something going for him: luck, writes Richard Kurt.

Within 24 hours of last week’s dismal display at Cambridge, Chelsea and Manchester City promptly demonstrated what a full-on FA Cup disaster really looks like. And following a fortnight of Reds’ muttering about LVG’s apparent regression, what better league fixture to face next than one of the relegation certs at home?

By half-time against Leicester, the glass-half-full brigade could be excused for turning to their more pessimistic neighbours in the stands and chirruping: “Crisis? What crisis?”

To be fair to Louis, he did head off two of the most repeated complaints at the pass on Saturday. Fed up of poxy formations and three-at-the-back malarkey? Well, here was the 4-4-2 for which you’d been chanting, with a proper diamond in the middle: and it worked (despite the continuing misplacement within same of certain personnel).

Sick of the way our passing speed and general tempo have ground to a near-halt since November’s zippier days?

Then here was some pace, early balls to forwards producing goals, and an overall sense of urgency. Yes, it was only Leicester. But a Leicester who stuck five past us not so long ago, let’s not forget. (As if we could.)

This won’t cut much ice with the Herrera Fan Club, and understandably so, given the way he is being treated.

I have mentioned before in this column that it would appear Anders must have run over Louis’s cat or something, and the continuing omissions are all the more aggrieving when you examine how Rooney performed in midfield on Saturday. Perhaps Herrera simply does not fit Van Gaal’s “philosophy“: is he the Albert Camus to Van Gaal’s Jean Paul Sartre? The situation certainly strikes some as befitting the theatre of the absurd, anyway.

On the positive side of the ledger, we had the sterling and stirring display of Danny Blind, who resoundingly answered some of the overeager knockers who had been starting to gather. Van Gaal would be justified in pointing out that Blind was his active choice of sought-out signing, as opposed to Herrera, who was a Moyes-era hangover deal to which he merely assented.

Big difference, that: it’s one that Falcao may also appreciate. And whilst on the subject of what our newbies would appreciate, I dare say poor Di Maria would prefer to be released from his mystifying upfront exile as soon as possible. Is LvG literally the only man at Old Trafford who thinks this could ever have been a good idea? (Yes, he is.) Pausing only to ‘salute’ the wretched Phil Jones’s performance — just two fingers required, soldier — let us look ahead. Not to tonight’s transfer deadline, which United’s suits have all but convinced us will bring in nothing, but to tomorrow and beyond. Cambridge arrive for their amply-deserved replay, doubtless bringing with them every jester-hatted village idiot from the whole of The Fens — and it will be a night to endure for Reds, as these occasions always are.

No Red will need to be reminded that an elimination tomorrow would be an utter catastrophe, given that this is our only chance of silverware and we’re playing a fourth division side.

It would also spawn an immediate managerial crisis for LVG, who has already pushed his luck on this front as far as it will go with the abysmal displays at Milton Keynes and The Abbey.

Arrogance is all very well when it’s justified: but when it leads to a battering from Nemesis, that’s quite another matter, whatever ‘philosophy’ you attempt to dress it up in.

Scarcely more pleasurable will be the weekend trip to the Upton Park bearpit, to face Sam Allardyce’s charmless outfit. West Ham are no longer quite the Route One battering ram that they once were but our ever-shifting defence — be it a 3, 4 or 5 — can still expect plenty of the airborne and deadball action they have come to hate.

As Louis would say: “twitchy ass time”...