Bruges: Mission accomplished for Louis Van Gaal, and with style to boot. Manchester United are back where they feel they belong and they got there by playing with the adventure their fans crave.
For sure Club Brugge were too puny an opposition for anyone to trumpet this as a major milestone in a triumphant European and domestic campaign, but this was undeniably encouraging, even if it did not resolve all Van Gaal’s doubts.
United reached the Champions League group stages and secured only their second away win in eight European ties, Wayne Rooney hit a cathartic hat-trick and Ander Herrera prospered in a line-up that was less cautious than Van Gaal had led some fans to expect.
The main criticism of Van Gaal following a start to the season in which results have been mostly positive is that he has ranked control too far above creativity, introducing a realpolitik at odds with the romantic heritage that United fans talk up. In that context, the manager’s team sheet for a match he dare not lose verged on the cavalier.
His decision to give Herrera his first start of the season — alongside Michael Carrick rather than Morgan Schneiderlin or Bastian Schweinsteiger — risked leaving the centre of United’s defence exposed. Schneiderlin’s protection of that defence has been integral to United’s solidity this season — just as his absence from Southampton is a key factor in that club’s defensive problems this term.
Of course this was a prime opportunity to rest the Frenchman, with United luxuriating in a two-goal first-leg lead and facing a team shorn of several regular starters and seemingly unconvinced about their own ability to mount a comeback, but even still, there was scope for Van Gaal to suffer a recurrence of that uncomfortable experience he memorably decried in January.
That was back when he was persisting with a 3-5-2 formation in spite of United fans’ pleas to deploy a 4-4-2, but the point was the same: this lineup seemed to leave relatively thin cover for United’s defence.
Van Gaal may have squirmed in his seat in the 13th minute, when Herrera was booked after being sidestepped by Victor Vazquez just in front of United’s back four. Abdoulay Diaby had already, in the sixth minute, found space to thrive in a similar area, before laying the ball off to the overlapping Laurens De Bock, whose cross could have plunged United into deep bother if Tom De Sutter had not botched a shot from eight yards. That move also highlighted the ongoing peculiarity of Van Gaal’s use of Juan Mata.
The positioning of Mata on the right seems a discrepancy in the Dutchman’s scheme. It neither caters to Van Gaal’s yearning for control — since the Spaniard lacks the pace to backtrack usefully — nor does it play to Mata’s main strength, which is why he frequently wanders in-field in an effort to exert more influence.
Mind you, Adnan Januzaj does not retreat to great effect either and has been inventive in the spot that Mata would prefer to occupy, a point he reinforced after just four minutes in Brugge, when he played a cute through-ball towards the rampaging Luke Shaw.
Scoring after 20 minutes was the perfect antidote to any United jitters. Herrera’s instinct to pick forward passes quickly was important, though there was hardly anything exceptionally visionary about his ball to Memphis Depay, who made the most sparkling contribution, dashing forward and slipping a pass to Wayne Rooney, who ended his scoreless streak with impressive nonchalance.
That goal all but settled the tie, but Van Gaal probably still did not sit comfortably. Brugge were still making too much mischief between United’s midfield and defence, with Vazquez and Diaby continually escaping the attentions of Herrera and Carrick and Mata still liable to leave Matteo Darmian to fend by himself.
A depleted Brugge were just about the most favourable play-off draw that United could have been given and a better team than the Belgian side might have punished Van Gaal’s side before half-time. Instead, De Sutter missed another pass from Diaby and then, in the 44th minute, Diaby neglected to shoot when sent clear on goal.
Van Gaal paid heed to the warnings. At half-time Van Gaal replaced Januzaj with Schweinsteiger and strung a three-man barrier across midfield. Leaving on Herrera despite the yellow card could have been construed as dicey, but the 26-year-old could do with the game time and he had demonstrated before the break the creative shifts that he can trigger, twisting past Claudemir on half-way before scampering forward 30 yards and being hauled back at the edge of the box, an offence that earned his counterpart a booking too.
Within four minutes of the resumption, United had relocated to Easy Street. Shaw won possession deep in opposing territory and fizzed a pass to Depay, who helped it on to the liberated Herrera, who unselfishly spoon-fed Rooney. The England striker then had a hat-trick, converting after more sterling service, this time from Mata, who had snuck in-field.
There was still plenty of time for Herrera to offer further proof of the goal threat he poses, as he collected Schweinsteiger’s superb deep pass before finishing expertly.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2015
