Is Louis van Gaal’s tactical tinkering his blessing and his curse?
Be they employed in League Two or La Liga, the Champions League or the Championship, every manager’s greatest strength than also be their fatal flaw; a double-edged sword, a blessing and a curse, that at some point proves their ultimate undoing.
Take Jose Mourinho, for example. His functional philosophy and pragmatic approach has won this season’s title, but last year it cost Chelsea during a Premier League campaign in which two clubs, for the first time in the competition’s history, scored more than 100 league goals. Or Pep Guardiola, considered by many to be the best in the business; tiki-taka and ever-changing formations created the greatest club side the world has ever seen at Barcelona, but last night it lead to Bayern Munich’s annihilation by his former club.
And it’s not just limited to the realms of footballing ideology. Newcastle fans bemoaned Alan Pardew’s substitutions for years, but the Magpies would probably be in the relegation zone right now if the former Toon manager’s introductions from the bench hadn’t clinched a series of winners at the start of the season.
Manchester United’s Louis van Gaal is no different. He too, is paradoxically plagued by the same defining gifts that made him so successful at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich – particularly, his tactical tinkering.
For such a colourful character, the Dutchman is decisively reserved during actual matches. Whilst some managers patrol their technical areas for a full ninety minutes and others jump from their seats before slumping back into them, LVG tends to sit there calm and collected, cross-referencing his notes with the action in front of him.
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On the pitch, however, United are continually changing. They switch from back fours to back threes, push members of the front-line into midfield and vice versa, and rotate Wayne Rooney through seemingly every position with the exclusion of centre-half. It creates a continuous veil of confusion; but tends to perplex the Red Devils as much as it does the opposition.
Overall, I’ve been impressed with van Gaal’s tinkering this season. His introduction of Marouane Fellaini against West Bromwich Albion in October, quickly resulting in a goal from the Belgian battering ram, and his decision to switch to a back four against QPR in January – albeit, at the behest of the travelling United support – particularly coming to mind.
Likewise, his tactical decisions proved inspired at last summer’s World Cup. He created a functioning 3-5-2 out of a Netherlands team that had never attempted the system before before, utilising winger Arjen Robben as a centre-forward and striker Dirk Kuyt as a right wing-back, whilst Daley Blind played just about everywhere. Even the novel idea of substituting on a goalkeeper – Newcastle’s Tim Krul – for a penalty shoot-out paid off dividends, seeing Oranje surpass Chile into the semi-finals.
Recently, however, amid a run of three games without victory, van Gaal’s tinkering has unquestionably cost United. Staring into the face of defeat against Chelsea three weeks ago, he subbed off Juan Mata, arguably United’s most in-form player prior to the fixture, for Adnan Januzaj, a winger who is yet to record any output in 17 Premier League appearances this season, whilst Luke Shaw, the only United player to truly penetrate the space behind Chelsea’s defence for the entire 90 minutes, exited the fray for Tyler Blackett, a centre-back almost incomparable to the England international through his lack of attacking flair and dynamism.
Likewise, last weekend’s defeat to West Brom produced the bizarre situation of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie playing behind Maroaune Fellaini, the midfielder’s height and power seen more essential to conquering the Baggies’ backline than two strikers ranked third and tenth respectively in the Premier League’s all-time scoring charts. Unsurprisingly, United failed to score, instead finding themselves rather chaotic, confused and static in the final third.
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It’s not gone down well with a significant portion of the Red Devils faithful. #LVGOut is unlikely to make a reappearance on Twitter any time soon, but some have grown frustrated with the United gaffer’s seemingly illogical, perpetual tinkering. It’s not a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth; rather, the one cook determined to use as many differing seasonings as possible – to the extent it’s become dogmatic.
But just as it’s been United’s undoing in recent weeks, at some point, van Gaal’s counter-intuitive tactics will prove the inspiration for victory, as it has already on many occasions this season. No manager can get it right every time; the real test is whether over the course of his three-year Red Devils contract, LVG’s approach gains United more points – and hopefully more trophies – than it loses them.
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