Louis van Gaal vs. David Moyes: Have Manchester United Actually Got Worse?

Last season, even when things were going poorly for Louis van Gaal at Manchester United, it was pretty easy to dismiss those who compared him unfavourably to David Moyes.

He had taken over the team the former Everton boss had wrecked, whereas Moyes had taken over the runaway champions of the previous season.

The Dutchman was building something and had attracted illustrious talent to bring it to fruition in a way the Scot had entirely failed to do. Van Gaal backed up the sense of improvement by getting United back into the Champions League.

That put a shine on a pretty disappointing first season in charge, but it was hard to argue against the idea that there had been some progress. This season, though, there has been considerable regression and we have reached the point where the comparison between the two managers is actually reasonable.

With 29 games gone last season, United were fourth with 56 points, two points off second place. This season they are sixth with 47 points, three points off the team in fourth who have a game in hand.

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That is much more directly comparable with Moyes' time in charge. In terms of points accrued, it is in fact worse than the 2013/14 side was at the same point—that United team had 48 points after 29 games played, though they were in seventh place.

Those Red Devils had a better goal difference too, plus-12 to the current plus-10. That was largely forged of the nine more goals they had scored—yes, Moyes' United was a more effective attacking unit than Van Gaal's.

They had also navigated the group stages of the Champions League and were still in the knockout stages, though 25 February, 2014, did see the 2-0 defeat at Olympiakos—one of the worst performances in living memory for most United fans.

And this brings us to the key knock against Moyes. Even though Van Gaal is spectacularly failing at his job—he should have been moved on in December and should certainly be replaced in the summer—it is still probably the case that he is marginally favourable to Sir Alex Ferguson's immediate successor.

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There are three games which sum up everything that was wrong with Moyes' United. They are the aforementioned loss to Olympiakos and the 3-0 home defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool.

The abject capitulation in those three games was, within the context of professional sport, a bona fide disgrace. The team lacked every attribute that should come as a given—fight, desire, passion, the great cliches of football that are cliches for a reason.

They also drastically lacked for quality—Olympiakos in particular were no great shakes as an opponent, as the return leg at Old Trafford showed.

This incarnation of United has been much more effective in the big games against big rivals, albeit that is no longer enough to justify Van Gaal's place at the helm.

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He finally approached something close to his "Olympiakos moment" in Denmark when United lost 2-1 to FC Midtjylland in a equally tame collapse. As Moyes' side had done, they overturned the result in the second leg, but there were plenty of parallels.

There are numerous difficulties when directly comparing the two managers.

The first is that they took over in radically different circumstances. Moyes took over the champions, which makes his performance look worse, but he also took over a squad which had Sir Alex Ferguson imprinted on it. He was working with people who had worked with the Old Trafford legend for years.

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He presumably suffered in their eyes from not being Ferguson. The received wisdom at the time was that you did not want to be the manager who succeeded United's most successful leader, but rather it would be preferable to be the man who succeeded his successor.

However, while that may have been the case in terms of the opportunity to right the ship that was presented to Van Gaal, Moyes' reign was such a disaster that the squad were bereft of confidence and in need of a significant overhaul.

That overhaul has, for the most part, happened.

On Sunday, United's loss to West Bromwich Albion featured just three players who had played for Ferguson—David De Gea, Chris Smalling and Michael Carrick. The other 15 had been bought in or promoted to the senior squad by Moyes or Van Gaal.

This is Van Gaal's side now, but its performances generally do not speak well of him.

And the Dutchman has begun to speak less well himself.

Ahead of the Europa League clash with Liverpool, he suggested that United's period of dominance was over and intimated that fans should be—and are—happy with being in the Europa League.

Per the Mirror, Van Gaal said:

"

It's not normal that one team is dominating for 20 years in a row It was another time. You live in the past. [This was a reference to both United and Liverpool] You have to live in the present. Other teams are in the Champions League.

We are happy to play in the Europa League, but six clubs are representing the Premier League in Europe.

You have to be proud of that. Not many countries have so many representing at that level.

You have noticed against Midjytlland we had 58,000 [at Old Trafford] so the fans of Manchester United are appreciating.

"

Van Gaal using fans' loyalty for his own positive spin is one of the more dispiriting public-relations moves he has used. Of course, bad PR was an area in which Moyes was clearly worse than the current manager, but the Dutchman is catching up.

Moyes' worst moments included:

• Saying he hoped his side would "make it as hard for them as we possibly can" ahead of Newcastle United's visit to Old Trafford, per Reuters. 
• Saying, per the Mail, that Manchester City were at "the sort of standard and level we need to try and aspire to get ourselves to at this moment in time." 
• Saying, per the Guardian, ahead of the Liverpool game at Old Trafford: "Their league position suggests they're ahead of us. They possibly do come here favourites."

It was the kind of talk that was perhaps meant to give an honest assessment of United's position but instead felt remarkably defeatist. It was hard to imagine Van Gaal would ever match it, but he has.

Per the Guardian, the Dutchman claimed Arsenal were "on another level," in reference to their 3-0 win over United, and in apparent concession that the Gunners were miles ahead of United.

He blamed the "Law of Murphy" for United's defeat to FC Midtjylland, per the Independent. 

And as noted previously, he essentially accused fans who want better from their team of living in the past, per the Mirror.

Van Gaal was always a more sensible appointment than Moyes, his CV is replete with success at elite clubs around Europe.

While things have been terrible this season, they have been terrible in a different way—United have done quite well against their fiercest rivals and the clubs competing at the top of the table, but they have struggled against weaker opposition.

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Moyes' side were fairly decent against weaker opponents—particularly away from home—but those City and Liverpool home defeats were emblematic.

Ultimately, though, it is not Moyes to whom the current incumbent should be compared. Indeed, it is a huge embarrassment to the club, and should be to Van Gaal himself that the comparisons have any merit at all.

Whether things are worse currently than they were under Moyes or not, they are clearly not even close to good enough. The sooner the Van Gaal era ends, the better for all concerned.

It is to be hoped that United's next manager will not be compared with either of his predecessors. 

Custom table data per Statto.com.