Manchester United's Loss to Swansea Has Heaped Pressure on Louis van Gaal

For the first 20 minutes of Manchester United's loss to Swansea City on Sunday, Louis van Gaal's side looked very lively. Incorporating Ander Herrera at 10 looked the panacea that had been promised by his second-half performance there against Club Brugge.

Bastian Schweinsteiger's assured presence was matched by some fancy moves, as he twice passed the ball over his head with a backheeled standing scorpion kick.

Then, just as it had done against Newcastle United a little over a week earlier, everything slowed down. Swansea established a foothold in the game, and apart from the five-minute spell in which they held the lead, United looked pretty much like a spent force.

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Wayne Rooney's midweek hat-trick looked a million miles away as he reprised his more familiar role as the frustrating and frustrated lone centre-forward, out of touch and short on confidence.

The only thing that has been going well this season—defensive organisation—failed for Swansea's goals. Morgan Schneiderlin was unable to cover for his full-backs for the first. The second was an old-fashioned shambles, the kind rarely seen at United since around the middle of last season.

The goalkeeper probably could have done better for the first goal and most certainly should have done better for the second. Suggesting David De Gea would have saved certain chances has become a running gag among United supporters when watching other teams.

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Sadly, there is little doubt he actually would have prevented the the second goal United conceded on Sunday.

The most frustrating, hard-to-forgive aspect of the game, though, was that almost all of United's attacking play was predictable.

Before Marouane Fellaini came on, there was lots of possession in front of Swansea's back four that rarely penetrated Swansea's deep-lying defence. After he came on, lots of long balls were aimed at him.

That was a script that could have been written by anyone who has paid any attention to United over the past year and a bit.

Van Gaal once again defended his side after the game. He said he did not believe the problem was attacking impotency, saying "we could have scored many more goals—I don't think that is the problem," per the club's Twitter account.

The numbers back him up, to an extent, with United having 11 shots at goal, per WhoScored.com. However, watching the game, it became increasingly hard to see where the goals were going to come from. Juan Mata opened his account for the season but was taken off shortly after United went behind.

Rooney once again escaped substitution in spite of another poor performance. It is remarkable a player who scored a hat-trick in midweek looked short of confidence, but he twice allowed defenders to get back at him because he wanted a perfect shooting opportunity.

In his prime, or even close to it, Rooney would have fired earlier when he was one on one with Swansea's 'keeper late on.

For now, though, Rooney, like the rest of Van Gaal's attacking collective, simply did not look threatening.

Fans' concerns are growing, and their patience is diminishing. It could be argued they have been spoiled by the years of success under Sir Alex Ferguson. It could be argued the lack of patience is something of an indictment of modern football—or more broadly, of modern life in general.

However, there are some justifiable concerns. Right now, it is hard to argue that Van Gaal's United look significantly improved over last season. That is bad enough, but what is really uncomfortable to acknowledge is that on the face of it, they do not look much improved over the season before that.

The transfer window is about to close—to "slam shut" in the parlance. Van Gaal and United have two options. They can pull off a remarkable signing before 6 p.m. on Tuesday and improve United's attack through changes in personnel.

Alternatively, the Dutchman will have to prove he really does know better than his critics and that United can muster the kind of attacking displays the fans crave under his stewardship.

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Time is running out quickly for the first option. It might be happening more slowly, but time is also running out for the second.