Manchester United's Attacking Inconsistency Will Deny Them Success This Season

Manchester United looked to have ended their goalscoring drought. In the run up to their 0-0 Champions League draw with PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night, they had won three games in a row, scoring five goals in the process.

However, that sequence was not long enough to assuage the memory of three goalless draws in succession, and all those dull, uninspiring memories came flooding back in the second half of Wednesday night's clash.

This time, though, there was no angry reaction from the crowd and no urging of "attack, attack, attack" from the stands.

On a night when the atmosphere around the ground felt tense thanks to the huge security presence, the atmosphere inside was left almost entirely to the travelling PSV supporters.

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Bit of a tense atmosphere outside OT with a huge security presence, understandably. Here for @br_uk pic.twitter.com/AZVNOTpx9z

— Paul (@UtdRantcast) November 25, 2015"

There was some mild booing at full-time, but it was more a collective grumble than seething anger.

Louis van Gaal's United have put in some poor 45-minute spells this season—the first half against Liverpool at Old Trafford and the first half at the Emirates Stadium—but this was right up there.

Hindsight is football's most powerful analytical tool, but some of United's woes in this game could well have been predicted. After excelling against Watford in a central role, Memphis Depay was shifted back out to the left wing where he has been mostly ineffective all season.

Unsurprisingly, he was mostly ineffective again, particularly when he tried to take on full-back Santiago Arias. Memphis was unsuccessful with either of his attempts to beat a man with a dribble.

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Wayne Rooney returned to the team and put in a first-half performance which—by the dramatically lowered standards of his 2015/16 season so far—was reasonable. However, his effectiveness had been dramatically diminished by the second half, and he was reduced to firing long passes from midfield.

Once again, Van Gaal looked to his default Plan-B option and brought on Marouane Fellaini, who was sent up front eventually so his team-mates could launch the ball to the big man.

This was in spite of the fact that their late goal against Watford was proof that sticking to what you know—and continuing to play your natural game—gets results when in need of a last-minute winner.

Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images

Juan Mata was sacrificed from the starting XI after creating more chances at Watford than any other United player. In a game crying out for some guile and invention, he got a tiny cameo at the end to try and influence proceedings. 

In short, it was the same old story of what Van Gaal's side currently looks like when they are struggling.

And while any one of those decisions could have borne fruit, United laboured instead. They drifted from a purposeful, attacking unit in the first half to a creatively devoid mess in the second. Of their seven shots on target in the game, six came in the first 45 minutes.

It was a bad result as much as a bad performance, too, as it heaps pressure on United's trip to Wolfsburg as they seek to qualify from the Champions League.

It was also a performance typical enough of the Red Devils' season so far to suggest that it will not be the last time it happens.

The inconsistencies of other sides have meant that United are still in the title picture in the Premier League, but surely there will be too many games where teams defend deep and Van Gaal's side cannot break them down.

After the game, when asked about whether he was concerned about United's lack of goals, Van Gaal said, per United's website: 

"

Of course I am worried but I know also that goals are not always a consequence of good or bad performances.

Today we could have scored at least three goals—they were not the most difficult chances, but we didn't score.

Yet in the next game, we could score out of nothing. That's football.

"

In absolute terms, of course, he is correct. However, it is hard not to think that Wednesday night's performance could have yielded much more had he made a few key decisions differently.

Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images

With qualification from the group stage into the Champions League very much in doubt—and the threat of Europa League football on the horizon—those decisions, and their impact on United's ability to be a consistent attacking threat, look likely to mean the Red Devils miss out on major honours.

There is still time for that to change, though, and United still look solid defensively, but the lack of killer instinct looks too big a hurdle for Van Gaal's side to conquer.

United's attacking woes make silverware look a long way off.