Manchester United Have No Cause for Faith in Louis van Gaal

Manchester United cannot seem to sustain good form under Louis van Gaal. It has reached the point where it is almost impossible to imagine the Dutchman will be remembered fondly at Old Trafford, such has been the litany of embarrassing draws and defeats that have done for his chances of success.

To put Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Sunderland in context, the Black Cats had previously won just three of their home games this season. Two of those opponents are in the bottom three of the table.

And this fixture hardly stands out as an anomaly. When the Red Devils lost to Norwich City at Old Trafford in December, it was just the Canaries' second away win of the season—the other being at the Stadium of Light, as irony would have it. Norwich have not added to their tally of away wins since.

When Bournemouth beat Manchester United at the Vitality Stadium the week before the Norwich game, it was only their second home win of the season and came almost three months after their previous home win—which was against Sunderland.

That Van Gaal is still in a job at this point speaks either to an extraordinary faith in his ability to turn things around—in the face of plenty of evidence to the contrary—or some deeper political machinations behind the scenes.

At this point, the former seems preposterous. Every purple patch Van Gaal's United have enjoyed has been followed by dismal results and performances.

That was the case in spring 2015, when following convincing victories over Manchester City and Liverpool, United limped over the line, earning just seven points from the last 18 available, costing themselves an automatic place in the group stage of the Champions League.

It has been the case again—the turnaround since the start of 2016 has not always been impressive, but United were actually convincingly good against Derby County and Stoke City. They gave a pretty impressive account of themselves for two-thirds of the game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Feb. 7. Then came the abject display at Sunderland.

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In many ways, the story of Van Gaal's United career is told in microcosm by his side's infamous performance at the King Power Stadium in September 2014. The record books show Leicester City—and not the table-topping Leicester City of 2015/16 but the relegation battlers of 2014/15—beat United 5-3.

The story was much more nuanced than that. In the first half of that game, Manchester United were genuinely breathtaking. Angel Di Maria scored a wonder goal. Radamel Falcao—in what was perhaps his last good game—provided a beautifully weighted cross for Robin van Persie to finish.

This expensively assembled team of superstars looked like they could really play together, and honestly, with the 4-0 home thrashing of Queens Park Rangers that had immediately preceded it, that first half had plenty of United fans believing their time under Van Gaal would be very special indeed.

The clouds of the David Moyes era had parted, and the sunlight was beautiful.

Rarely has a dawn proved so false so quickly. Leicester, foreshadowing this season, turned into an almighty attacking force and demolished United, whose confidence collapsed. Van Gaal retreated into a more defensive mindset that has only ever temporarily shifted since.

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Hope was followed swiftly by despair, as it was yet again at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

With every dawn proving false, Van Gaal feels like a dead man walking at United. Perhaps there is a plan fans are not privy to. Perhaps United are once again waiting for Champions League qualification to be a mathematical impossibility before they act—as they did with Moyes.

They should have acted in December to try to change the course of this season more dramatically.

It is now too late for shoulds, though, and the Red Devils are left hoping for a miraculous run of form in the league to be combined with the collapse of one of the teams above them—or an unlikely UEFA Europa League triumph—to earn them Champions League football next season.

And if form does improve, fans are unlikely to get that excited about it. Whatever he has achieved elsewhere in his career, Van Gaal has never been able to sustain good form at United. After any purple patch he has enjoyed, his side has quickly reverted to the mean: lacklustre, unconvincing, dull and ultimately unsuccessful football.