Manchester: Louis van Gaal has always said it could get worse before it gets better at Manchester United.
He couldn’t have thought it would get this bad.
Barely two months ago, a jubilant Van Gaal was leaping out of his seat and high-fiving his Netherlands players as he masterminded a 5-1 thrashing of Spain at the World Cup in Brazil.
Compare that to the glum, stony-faced figure of Van Gaal who remained glued to his seat during United’s humiliating 4-0 loss to third-tier club MK Dons in the second round of the League Cup on Tuesday.
To the right of him, Ryan Giggs — a club great who is now Van Gaal’s assistant coach — buried his face in his hands.
Even though United fielded a virtual reserve team, albeit one containing established internationals like Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa, it was one of the most embarrassing results in the history of England’s biggest club.
Following on from a winless start in the Premier League after two games of Van Gaal’s tenure, serious doubts are already being raised about the Dutchman’s use of the 3-5-2 formation and the lack of depth in his squad, especially in defence.
“The process needs time,” Van Gaal said. “We know exactly what we are doing.”
Time is something United doesn’t have.
David Moyes only lasted 10 months last season before being fired, and Van Gaal has already virtually written off United’s chances of winning the Premier League in this second straight year of transition at Old Trafford.
With no European football this season, the FA Cup remains the only genuine opportunity for silverware — and it is still only August.
The optimism of pre-season, when United won six straight games under Van Gaal, including victories over Real Madrid and Liverpool, has disappeared.
Van Gaal is now left hoping a spending spree of about £130 million ($215 million, Dh792 million), capped by the club-record signing of Angel Di Maria for $99 million hours before the MK Dons game, pays off.
Van Gaal has played three at the back in his time at United but his defenders look uncomfortable in that formation and the wing backs — so crucial in a 3-5-2 — utilised by the Dutchman have no experience in that position.
Di Maria’s arrival will not just introduce pace and fresh ideas into the team’s midfield, it might also mean United changing tactics.
“We shall see if with Di Maria we have to change the system or not,” Van Gaal said on Tuesday.
With less than a week before the transfer window shuts, the loss again highlighted the need for defensive reinforcements. Left back Luke Shaw and left-sided defender Marcos Rojo have joined but United appears to still require an experienced centre back.
The defending was awful against MK Dons, with Jonny Evans — a regular in recent seasons — to blame for the first goal.
Van Gaal didn’t escape blame, either, with critics questioning why he felt the need to rest star players like Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata when United isn’t in Europe this season.
Even with a weakened side, how could a club that won the Premier League 15 months ago and was playing in the Champions League final three years ago play so poorly against third-tier opposition that didn’t even exist a decade ago?
On Twitter, Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko tweeted “Hahahaha” after MK Dons’ second goal went in.
With only the league to concentrate on until January, the loss may boost United’s chances of getting back in the top four and returning to the Champions League.
Acute embarrassment
For the time being, though, the embarrassment remains acute.
“I am not shocked because I know what can happen,” Van Gaal said. “A new team is not built in one month.
“It’s difficult for the fans, I know that, but they have to believe in our philosophy,” Van Gaal added. “At the end, they can judge.”
Meanwhile, from being the most reviled club in British football, MK Dons woke up on Wednesday to find they had gained new friends all over the world with a single result.
Derided since their formation a decade ago as an artificial “franchise” club, the League One (third tier) side caused widespread delight by inflicting a humiliating 4-0 defeat on Louis van Gaal’s supposedly mighty Manchester United.
Van Gaal, who has yet to win in three competitive matches for his new club, may have made ten changes for the game, but nobody in Milton Keynes, 45 miles north-west of London, was allowing that to detract from the greatest day in the history of the football club — and arguably the town itself.
Developed from a small village in the 1960s, with the aim of becoming a major regional centre, Milton Keynes had been best known until a decade ago for its roundabouts and iconic sculpture of concrete cows.
Then in 2003 Wimbledon football club, FA Cup winners 15 years earlier, were moved there from south London by their owners against the wishes of most supporters.
The following year the name was changed to MK Dons, while dissenting fans formed their own club, AFC Wimbledon, who subsequently reached the Football League.
Bad feeling remains between the two, who have subsequently met twice in cup matches. The most recent occasion was a fortnight ago in the first round of the Capital One Cup, when a 3-1 victory earned MK Dons their glamour tie against United.
By winning it in such convincing fashion on Tuesday night, in front of a record attendance of 26,969, they hope to have thrown off the mantle of unpopularity in which they have always been shrouded.
“It’s the day we came of age,” the club’s owner and chairman Pete Winkelman, a former music executive, told BBC Radio on Wednesday.
“We’re a young club with lots of controversy in the beginning and we’re proud to be making history at last.” Asked if it would lead to greater acceptance within football, he said: “I hope that it will allow the club to look forward.
“Since the club’s been in Milton Keynes it’s made a real difference locally.” Although the club have never played above the third tier, Winkelman has greater ambitions. “I’ve no doubt that one day Milton Keynes Dons will be a Premier League football team,” he said.
“But whatever happens, that result will never be forgotten in Milton Keynes.”
