Wolfsburg 3-2 Manchester United. The main success from Van Gaal's first season was qualifying for the champions league and now, before Christmas in his second season, United crash out of one of the easiest groups in the competition. Seven goals in six games and the only English team to have failed to qualify for this season's knockout rounds. With their injury list growing and the fans starting to turn against the manager with chants of "attack, attack, attack" being heard regularly throughout games and now booing starting to creep in, it is quite clearly a nightmare first half of the season.
Things started to go bad back in October when United were dumped out of the Capital One Cup after a goalless 120 minutes and a poor penalty shoot out at home against Championship side, Middlesbrough. In a season where United need a trophy to show progress, the Capital One Cup was the easiest option, especially after Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs were also knocked out before United. The Champions League and Premier League were always going to be long shots but the FA Cup and League Cup were there to be won and to be defeated by a second division team has hurt the fans.
The lack of goals is also a real frustration as United have now took part in six 0-0 draws by mid December. Only two teams have scored less in the top ten in the Premier League and although they are still in the top 4 and in the title race, it seems like they don't quite have enough and will not be able to match the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal in the long run. When results like Stoke 2-0 Man City, come around, United need to capitalise on it and put pressure on them however, they are unable to do so and the 0-0 draw at home to West Ham shows this. The goal scoring problem has a lot to do with the fact that Rooney and Martial are the only two strikers in the main squad as Van Gaal has also overseen the departure of Van Persie, Hernandez, Falcao, Welbeck, Zaha, Kagawa, Nani, Di Maria as well as the recent loan departures of Wilson and Januzaj. All of this has happened in Van Gaal's 18 months in charge and yet people question why United are struggling to score. Any one of these players give an attacking threat that United are lacking especially with the fact that Hernandez has already scored 14 goals this season and players like Zaha are huge influences in their new clubs.
The lack of squad depth that United have is worrying as well as now that the injuries are starting to pile up, there are no real first team back up options. By the end of the Wolfsburg game, United were playing Varela, Borthwick-Jackson, Lingard and Powell. McNair and Pereira were both on the bench and Memphis and Martial were also in the starting eleven. The lack of experience is astonishing and although I want to see young players given the chance, I don't want to see it under these circumstances because this is out of desperation and United shouldn't rely on them this much. However they don't have a choice now taking injuries into account, there is a lack of experience and quality in the main squad.
The failure to qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions League is the most disappointing as it was a very easy group. CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg are decent teams but shouldn't be too tricky and PSV would have been a tougher test last season when they were the best team in the Netherlands but as they lost their best players in the summer, there is no excuse for getting one point out of six against them. Finishing third in the group has left United in the Europa League for the rest of the season and if United don't win the Europa League or at least get to the semi finals, there will be a lot of angry fans calling for Van Gaal's resignation as there are only three trophies left to be won for United, the Premier League, the Europa League and the FA Cup. To keep the fans happy, something must be won, some might think the best one to win is the league but it doesn't matter what as long as the trophy cabinet back at Old Trafford gets added to. However, if nothing is won after £250 million has been spent, it might just be time for Van Gaal to leave.
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