Louis van Gaal's self-imposed deadline is nearly up

It doesn't seem that long since Manchester United's capitulation at Everton last April signalled the end of David Moyes' unhappy tenure at Manchester United. Now, as Everton prepare to visit Old Trafford on Sunday, it is perhaps time for Louis van Gaal's new United team to reveal its true self.

Such has been the scale and speed of change since that awful day on Merseyside less than six months ago that only two players selected by Moyes at Goodison Park - David de Gea and Juan Mata - can expect to start on Sunday. Six members of the 18, meanwhile, no longer play for the club.

It has been a remarkable period at Old Trafford. A club for which stability became a byword during Sir Alex Ferguson's years has perhaps not seen a time like it since the great Scot himself arrived in the mid-1980s and began dismantling what he believed had become a glorified social club under Ron Atkinson.

On his arrival this summer, new United manager Louis van Gaal asked for a little time. Three months, he said, and, though we are not at that self-imposed deadline yet, it is perhaps time that we began to see a little more of a 'philosophy' that Van Gaal often talks about but has thus far not been convincingly revealed by his team's football.

To look at United's first team these days is to look upon a forward line that can look as though it has been hewn from a fantasy football league. They can play like that, too, even if this weekend's line-up will miss Wayne Rooney through suspension and Ander Herrera through injury.

United's first game post-transfer window was at home to QPR. Initially a game scheduled to feature supporter protests about a lack of spending, United's late flurry of August spending was ultimately reflected by a 4-0 victory featuring cameos from Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao.

Elsewhere in their squad, though, United still look paper thin, especially at centre half. This has been reflected in a startling 5-3 defeat at Leicester (that sentence still doesn't sound right) and a 2-1 home win over West Ham that began vibrantly and ended with nerves shredded.

It's this contrast between performances that Van Gaal has not yet managed to reconcile. United can look a completely different team within the space one match, never mind one week, and the reasons for this go deeper than an injury crisis that once more found Van Gaal scrabbling around for fit defenders at Carrington on Friday.

For all the technical quality of United's offensive players – Herrera in particular looks a fine footballer – United continue to have difficulties retaining possession for long periods.

Ferguson used to talk about suffocating opponents with possession but that trait began to slip away during his later years and it's problem that went on to afflict Moyes' United and is now causing difficulties for Van Gaal.

Against West Ham, for example, United were already beginning to pedal backwards prior to Rooney's sending off after an hour. A team that can look as devastating as any when it moves forward still spends too much time without the ball, despite the endless passing drills that Van Gaal asks his coaches to organise on a daily basis during first ream training.

(dailymail.co.uk)

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