Breaking Down How Louis van Gaal Can Make Manchester United Watchable Again

Manchester United fans are not, by and large, particularly enjoying the experience of watching Louis van Gaal's side in action.

This has been much discussed in the media. Paul Scholes, speaking on BT Sport on November 3 (h/t Manchester Evening News), said: 

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I want United to blast teams away and be creative. I want to see that but it’s not happened.

I think they’re brilliantly coached defensively. Sometimes you’ve got to do that against Barcelona or Real Madrid but not against Crystal Palace or CSKA Moscow at home.

It’s difficult to coach attractive football. Whether Van Gaal doesn’t allows it, I don’t know.

It’s a boring style of football.

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Van Gaal, speaking after United's game against West Bromwich Albion on November 7, claimed that fans expressing their dissatisfaction over the style of play had been influenced by Scholes' words.

While there may have been some influence, Van Gaal is entirely misguided if he thinks fans would have been satisfied with the style of play had Scholes said nothing. This is inherently anecdotal evidence, but conversations around Old Trafford or on social media this season have often focused on how dull the matches have become.

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Watching Manchester United is a lot less fun than it once was. And it is not because of results. United have dropped just four points at home in the league this season and have won both of their home Champions League games. They lost on penalties to Middlesbrough, but the League Cup does not weigh heavy on the hearts of United fans.

So while the team's away form may be less than stellar, Old Trafford is pretty much a fortress.

Or at least, a bore-tress. Snore-tress?

Bad wordplay aside, the problem of making the team watchable again is not an easy one to solve.

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As Scholes says, United are brilliantly coached from a defensive perspective. The team's positioning, the way they use their holding midfielders to snuff out counter-attacks and the fact that Chris Smalling and David De Gea are both such fine players means visiting teams have neither had nor taken many chances at the Theatre of Dreams.

United have not had many, either, though they have taken them with aplomb. United have had just 85 shots in the league so far this season, 73 fewer than Manchester City, per Manchester Evening News. Their conversion rate of 20 per cent is the highest in the league, but it has needed to be to keep them competitive. 

Van Gaal, speaking after United beat CSKA Moscow, said he had encouraged his players to shoot more frequently from outside the box at half-time in that encounter.

The simple action of shooting more often would probably make United more watchable. However, the barrier to that, as it has been to much of United's attacking play, is that teams have generally taken Jose Mourinho's playbook to heart and set up to defend in numbers against Van Gaal's side.

It is much harder to find a good shooting opportunity from outside the box if there are banks of midfielders and defenders between you and the goal.

The problem of the other team is certainly a significant one when it comes to Van Gaal making United more entertaining. Mourinho pointed the way when his eventual champions arrested United's run of good form at Stamford Bridge toward the end of last season. They set up as his Inter Milan side had against Barcelona in the Champions League in 2010.

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Lots of men behind the ball, and attempting to hit United on the break has been the game plan for almost every visiting coach—and plenty of coaches receiving United—ever since.

After the West Brom game, Van Gaal expressed his hope that teams would see that two relentlessly defensive sides in a row had been beaten at Old Trafford and think twice about setting up with 10 men behind the ball.

That would be very much in his interests if he wants to up the entertainment value. However, if that does not happen, he still has options.

He could stop playing two holding midfielders against teams in a relegation battle at home. The double-pivot has been a near ever present in Van Gaal's system. Abandoning that in favour of a more traditional Dutch 4-3-3 would go a very long way to making United more inventive.

I wrote about why Ander Herrera should be a linchpin of Van Gaal's side back on November 2. In that article, I wrote:

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With Herrera playing alongside, say, Bastian Schweinsteiger in midfield, United would likely have more players breaking ahead of the ball from midfield. While this may make the side a little more defensively permeable than they have been of late, it should at least ensure that chants of "We're Man United, we want to attack" are a thing of the past.

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All of that still applies, as does Tuesday's plea to play Anthony Martial at centre-forward.

Incorporating those changes would, at a stroke, make United more exciting. 

Another option would be to change the area in which United cycle their possession. Partly because of their own tactical structure, and partly because of how defensive most of United's opponents have been, the players in the Red Devils' side with most time on the ball have been their own defence and defensive midfielders.

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In the league, the players with the top five highest average number of passes per game, per WhoScored.com are Daley Blind, Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Michael Carrick and Luke Shaw. Juan Mata, at seventh, is the highest-ranking attacker on the list. 

Even in the small sample size of the Champions League games so far, the list runs Schneiderlin, Carrick, Schweinsteiger, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling.

Getting the ball into the forwards more quickly would certainly make the side more dynamic. There is a tangible sense of frustration around Old Trafford now when the team, looking for opportunities to probe and attack instead turn back and knock the ball back to midfield to start a new phase of play, and find a gap elsewhere.

The final important option is the quality in terms of creativity and pace that Van Gaal has often spoken about wanting to add to his squad, per the Independent.

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Martial was a step toward that, and Van Gaal's experimental inclusion of Jesse Lingard into the first-team picture is a means of trying to address the issue. Memphis Depay's signing has not worked out yet, but there is every chance he will adapt and be able to add those qualities to the front line.

They are important because the key to ensuring that the area of maximum frustration is diminished. The maximum frustration in the crowd arrives when a lengthy spell of possession ends with a miss-control, or a misplaced pass or an over-hit cross.

These instances, frustrating in any football setting, become maddening when they represent an anti-climax after an overly long build-up. Increasing the depth of quality in United's forward line is something Van Gaal will surely continue to do.

So, a tweak in the system, some changes in personnel in terms of players already at the club getting onto the pitch and further investment in the transfer market.

If Van Gaal can embed these changes without sacrificing the hard-won defensive solidity which United have displayed, he will have certainly made United more watchable and, in all likelihood, more successful too.

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If he succeeds in that the moniker of the Theatre of Dreams will once again refer to footballing reverie, rather than the inclination of those in attendance to doze off.

Quotations obtained firsthand where not otherwise stated.