Louis van Gaal Needs to Improve His Transfer Success Rate at Manchester United

The Manchester United crisis is over for now. 

It lasted for six days when United failed to score a goal over the course of three games and five hours, and reached its peak at the final whistle against Crystal Palace when mutinous chants of “attack, attack, attack” were heard echoing around Selhurst Park.

But nine days ago, a sturdy, if unspectacular, 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion quelled these protests and took United into the international break in a more contented mood, and just two points from the summit of the Premier League.

Suddenly a title challenge looks possible, and it has even emboldened Louis van Gaal to start talking about the new players he needs to buy, possibly as soon as January.

“I have said already in my first year many times we need speed and creativity on the wings,” Van Gaal declared, as reported in the Guardian. “So we must first [address] that problem and then we can see how we play and how we are in balance with playing with speedy wingers.”

The Dutchman is making a none-too-subtle plea for more money and yet more forays into the transfer market, but the inconvenient truth is that, so far, his record in purchasing players has been at best modest, and at worst poor.

In the last 18 months, the Dutchman has made 13 major new signings at a total cost of around £250 million, and I would contend only two of them—Anthony Martial and Bastian Schweinsteiger—have been unqualified successes so far. 

Just two out of 13 is an alarmingly poor success rate, and Van Gaal needs to radically change that with his future purchases, and more importantly, with the players he has already brought to the club.

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Most of Van Gaal’s purchases cannot be characterised as failures, but rather they currently reside in the "undecided" column, and key to the Dutchman turning United into champions is how many he can now budge cross to the "success" column.

None of the class of 2014—the players Van Gaal purchased in his first transfer window—have been overwhelming successes. 

Two of them, Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao, arrived for big fees and with even bigger reputations, but both proved to be massive disappointments.

It still taints Van Gaal that he spent a club record £59.7 million on Di Maria, and then struggled to get the best out of him before prematurely giving up after only eight months.

The four other players, Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind, have all shone at times and looked like they could become fine Old Trafford players, but even the most one-eyed United fan—or Van Gaal himself—would struggle to make a case that they have been unqualified successes.

It might seem a harsh judgment on Shaw, who appeared to be fulfilling his potential this season after a difficult first year before injury cruelly intervened. Should he return in the same form, there is no question he will effortlessly glide into the "success" column.

Blind is quite clearly a class act, a wonderful passer of the ball, a calm and technical player on the ball, but he veers between this and being the Dutch John O’Shea where his versatility only serves to undermine him.

Van Gaal has played Blind at centre-back, left-back and in central midfield, but he has never done enough to hold on to any of these positions.

The same questions linger around Rojo. Is he a centre-back or a left-back? And fundamentally, is he actually any good?

At the start of the season, Van Gaal appeared to have no interest in finding out and banished him from the side for the first seven games. He is now back in and impressing as Shaw’s deputy at left-back, but for how long?

Michael Regan/Getty Images

There is a deep affection for Herrera among United fans, but it does not appear to be shared by Van Gaal so far.

When Herrera plays, he usually plays well—eight league goals in 24 starts attests to that—but all too often the Spaniard has been left on the substitutes' bench.

Given a run in the side, Herrera could become a success as there is a huge talent there, but he still needs to find his position in the side and win Van Gaal’s trust first.

Another midfielder, Morgan Schneiderlin, now finds himself in exactly the same position this season.

So far the 26-year-old has performed well, if not brilliantly, for United and certainly not to the same dominant levels seen at Southampton last season.

Schneiderlin has only appeared in 13 of United’s 20 games this season as he’s been rotated with Michael Carrick and Schweinsteiger.

A clearly gifted French international approaching his peak, and with a lot more to offer, he still needs to prove to Van Gaal he is not so easily expendable.

Jon Super/Associated Press

Another summer purchase Matteo Darmian started well, and was soon hailed as the second coming of Gary Neville, but it wasn’t to last. And he, too, has found himself hauled off the pitch and demoted to the bench, with Van Gaal turning to makeshift defenders Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young to fill in at right-back. 

Memphis Depay hasn’t started a United game since the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal at the start of October, and his current position out of the side only proves that he is yet another Van Gaal signing failing to deliver.

A £25 million purchase and the reigning Dutch Player of the Year, United have only seen fleeting glimpses of this pedigree at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal’s back-up goalkeepers, Victor Valdes and Sergio Romero can together boast of Champions League wins and World Cup final appearances, but the former Barcelona man has been frozen out, while the Argentinian inspired little confidence between the posts at the start of the season. 

There have been successes, but after an outlay of £250 million, too few.

Martial has been a revelation, an astute signing by Van Gaal, and already, as highlighted by opposition managers, he has become United’s main attacking force.

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

And to no one’s surprise, Schweinsteiger has strolled into Old Trafford and played as you would expect from a Bayern Munich graduate, a World Cup winner and the German captain.

It is his presence and calm assurance in front of the United defence that has helped United concede the fewest goals in the Premier League so far this season.

The majority of Van Gaal’s purchases are giving too many six- or seven-out-of-10 performances, when he needs eights and the occasional nine from them.

The United board is wedded to Van Gaal; he has brought stability and progress. And if he wants more money, they have little choice but to provide it, despite his questionable record with the club cheque book. 

The jury remains out on most of Van Gaal’s signings, which neatly reflects the prevailing mood towards the manager as well. 

But if players like Herrera, Depay, Blind and Schneiderlin can produce a more positive verdict, they could yet deliver Van Gaal the title this season.

The Dutchman’s future will depend on the players he has brought to Old Trafford.