Win over Crystal Palace Hides Man United's Flaws but Result Is All That Matters

OLD TRAFFORD, MANCHESTER—Sometimes, the only thing that matters is the result. You can pore over the statistics, but when the final whistle blows, there's only one that really counts: the score.

On Saturday, Manchester United were in desperate need of a win against Crystal Palace. It might not have been very pretty and there were one or two nervous moments, but United manager Louis van Gaal won't care too much.

His team gained three valuable points that push United up to sixth in the Premier League table, just two points off the Champions League places.

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"We stay in the race for the places we want to finish," the Dutchman said afterwards. And that, in early November, is all you can ask for.

United's target this season is to finish in the top four. With that in mind, it's less important that they win games against title challengers like Chelsea and Manchester City. It is, however, absolutely vital they beat teams like Crystal Palace at home. And that's exactly what they did. 

The Red Devils will have to improve if they hope to win games against top-four contenders Arsenal, Southampton and Liverpool coming up after the international break. But after dropping points to Swansea, Sunderland, Burnley, Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion already this season, they couldn't afford to drop any more against Palace. Juan Mata's second-half goal ensured they did not.

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Van Gaal started with his eighth different combination at centre-back in just his 11th Premier League game, with Daley Blind and Paddy McNair chosen to cover for the absent Phil Jones, Jonny Evans, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling.

They kept a clean sheet in the end—just United's third this season—although they owed part of that to Fraizer Campbell spurning a golden chance in the first half.

But Van Gaal should be just as concerned that his forward line of Angel Di Maria, Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Adnan Januzaj created very few clear chances against Neil Warnock's struggling side. United recorded just five shots on target over the 90 minutes. 

The game might have ended goalless if Mata's strike hadn't taken a deflection off Damien Delaney. Teams from United's past would have given a largely unambitious Palace side a kicking. It led Van Gaal to say they had only created “possibilities” rather than “big chances.”

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That said, Van Gaal's main concern is teaching his team how to win games. Earlier in the season, Palace might have nicked one at the end or Mata's goal wouldn't have come.

There's plenty of time for United to learn how to play beautiful football. And, with the players Van Gaal has available, one of their opponents is going to get a thumping sooner or later.

But until that starts to happen, it's important United are still winning games. It might not have thrilled the fans or got the Match of the Day producers salivating, but grabbing the three points was all that mattered.

Quotes obtained first-hand.