Wenger vs. Van Gaal: Breaking Down the Arsenal vs. Man Utd Dugout Battle

Manchester United and Arsenal face each other on Saturday, giving Louis van Gaal the chance to pit his wits against the former arch-rival of one of his predecessors.

Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson's relationship may have mellowed over the years, but the height of their rivalry was a golden period in both men's careers.

In Wenger's case, it was the last golden period of his career. The flow of silverware has since dried up. The tap was finally turned back on as Arsenal triumphed in last season's FA Cup, but whether it ever becomes a consistent stream again remains to be seen.

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The problem of an unbalanced squad, wherein key problems have been ignored in favour of bringing in superstar attacking players, has been compounded by a raft of defensive injuries leading to a stuttering start for, well, both managers.

The two sides are beset by some similar issues, but Van Gaal would seem to have a stronger case for his own defence than Wenger.

Van Gaal has been in his post less than six months, whereas Wenger is two seasons shy of reaching the 20th anniversary of his Arsenal appointment. That Van Gaal was unable to fully rebalance United's squad in one transfer window is understandable.

For outsiders looking in, Wenger's apparent blind spot to issues around Arsenal's fundamental solidity remain baffling. Unlike Ferguson, Wenger has never found a way to adapt to the new reality enforced by the financial earthquake of Roman Abramovich's arrival in the Premier League.

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After finishing no lower than second between 1997 and 2005, the 2005/06 season saw Arsenal finish fourth. Since then they have finished fourth on five further occasions and third three times.

Many of those seasons have seen them flatter to deceive, either sustaining a late challenge for fourth, which offered hope of better the following season or, like last time out, seen them start strongly and fall away in the latter part of the campaign.

It is damning of Wenger that Arsenal were the only side who finished above United in the 2013/14 season that were unable to beat David Moyes' men. Their 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford was also United's only home win against any of the top six.

In truth, although any win for Moyes' United against a rival club had a slight element of surprise, United's recent record against Arsenal is so good that few eyebrows were raised. The Red Devils have not lost to the Gunners since May 2011, during the run-in which saw United eventually win the league. Before that, it was November 2008, and again, United ended the season as champions.

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In their last 10 fixtures, the aggregate score is 20-6 in United's favour. Nine of those were Premier League clashes, in which United have amassed 20 points to Arsenal's five. The goals tally is, of course, skewed by United's 8-2 victory in 2011, but the points differential indicates the number of goals in that game may have been an anomaly, but United's win was not.

Although past performance is no guarantee of future success, the fact that Wenger was unable to keep up with Ferguson—and even unable to overhaul Moyes—should offer plenty of ammunition to tip the psychological balance of the dugout battle in Van Gaal's favour.

When Van Gaal was announced as United's next manager, Wenger was extremely complimentary about him. Back in July, when working for French television (h/t Mail Online), Wenger said:

"

I think he is going to be a fantastic manager in the Premier League.

I liked how the decisions he made [during the World Cup] were clear, how the timing of his decisions were always right and in my opinion it was the right decision every time. I am sure that Manchester United will be competitors this year for the championship and that will be more interesting.

"

Unfortunately for United fans, it seems fairly clear that the Red Devils will not be competitors for the league title, barring a dramatic shift in fortunes. The same can probably be said of Arsenal, who have just a point more from the opening 11 games of the Premier League season. Wenger said, after defeat to Swansea on 9 November (h/t Mail Online):

"

Chelsea are on an average of 100 points this season. If you look at the number of points they have, if they keep that up nobody will catch them.

There doesn’t look to be anybody capable of challenging them at the moment.

"

So, while the problems with their squads and current league positions may be similar, Wenger and Van Gaal have very different styles. Van Gaal has declared himself to be "confident, arrogant, dominant, honest, hard-working and innovative," per BBC Sport.  It is almost impossible to imagine the Frenchman describing himself in the same terms.

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There is also a distinct difference in the way their current sides play football. Van Gaal's United are far more direct than Wenger's Arsenal.

United's last game was at home to Crystal Palace. During that match, 8.88 percent of United's passes were hit long. Against Chelsea at Old Trafford, that number was 14.29 percent and against Manchester City at the Etihad it was 15.86 percent.

When Arsenal played Crystal Palace at the Emirates in August, their percentage of long balls was just 4.43 percent. At Stamford Bridge in their 2-0 defeat to Chelsea, it was 8.62 percent and at home to City it was 8.85 percent.

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Although Van Gaal may have built his reputation on possession football at Ajax and Barcelona, there was plenty of evidence during the Netherlands' World Cup campaign that he had become much more comfortable with his side passing the ball long. This was evidenced by Daley Blind's superb assist for Robin van Persie's iconic flying header against Spain.

It will be intriguing to see how often United look for a direct pass on Saturday. They have, by and large, been more likely to play long passes against bigger sides, as well as when playing away from home.

At the Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion, United's 12.84 long-pass percentage was higher than against Palace, a team of similar standing to WBA but who had been faced at Old Trafford. It was lower by some margin than the subsequent games against the sides challenging for the title.

The percentage of direct passes United play could be something of an indicator of how well Wenger's side are doing during the match, or even how much of a threat Van Gaal perceives them to be.

This is certainly not to say direct passes are a bad choice for Van Gaal against Wenger. Many of Ferguson's wins over Arsenal came through incisive counter-attacking, perhaps most memorably in the second leg of the semi-final of the 2008/09 Champions League at the Emirates when, using direct passing and incisive running, United swept upfield to undo Wenger's game plan.

Unlike Ferguson in 2009, both managers are having difficulty with their tactical systems at the moment.

It is not obvious what formation Van Gaal will deploy against Arsenal. Although the 4-3-3/4-5-1 hybrid he has been using since the West Brom game is an option, he may prefer to switch back to the diamond midfield he had been using previously. United's form was considerably better when the diamond was in place.

The Dutchman has accepted that he may have made too many changes to the system, saying, per The Independent: 

"

It’s too much [change to formation] I think, I agree. But I’m looking for the balance and when you see the last four matches, we have had more balance because we haven’t conceded many goals. Nevertheless, we don’t score so much. With the other system, we scored a lot of goals

"

Bleacher Report's World Football Tactics Lead Writer Sam Tighe wrote of Wenger's tactics against Swansea :

"

The midweek collapse against Anderlecht—allowing the Belgian side to draw 3-3 despite going 3-0 down—was embarrassing. The lessons that should have been learned were: tighten up at the right time and play the correct personnel matchups.

Arsenal were still wide open after going 1-0 up here, and Swansea struck late on to score two.

"

So, facing similar issues with the balance of their squad, injuries and tactical uncertainty, the dugout battle will be intriguing. The stakes are high for both managers, who are keen to take pressure off themselves and their players after a difficult recent run.

It could be a key moment in both men's seasons.

All statistics per WhoScored.com