Clattenburg and Van Gaal fail Manchester United

Article by Terry Carroll

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Louis van Gaal may have lambasted his players after the shocker against Leicester City, but he needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.

So does Mark Clattenburg. Both fell desperately short of their own high professional standards with highly questionable decision-making during the game.

Let's take the referee first.

He had not given a single penalty all season and, while there was no dispute about the second one, nor Tyler Blackett's red card, the first call was a shocker – twice.

In its context it was as disgraceful a decision as that by Cuneyt Cakir to send off Nani against Real Madrid. And it had a similar impact, because United were cruising after two exquisite goals by Angel Di Maria and Ander Herreira.

Watching the replay over and over, Clattenburg actually makes two shockingly bad decisions in the space of a few seconds. Even Graham Poll in the Daily Mail said the referee was very wrong.

First, everybody except Clattenburg saw Jamie Vardy look directly at Rafael and not at the ball (which was several feet away) and deliberately barge the United defender to the ground. It was a laughable Non-League ploy but what was more risible was that the ref let play go on.

He had previously disdained to give Ritchie de Laet a second yellow for barging Di Maria into the tarmac, and now he simply let play go on as Vardy reached the ball. Rafael recovered and ran alongside the Foxes striker.

Once again you can see Vardy look directly at Rafael rather than the ball and lean into him before falling to the ground. If that was a penalty kick, why wasn't the earlier barge a stonewall free kick? To compound the farce, Clattenburg then made a 'shoulder charge' movement to indicate why he gave the penalty.

This was pure farce.

And it wasn't just a shock to the players, it was a momentum changer as Leicester went on to tear apart a disjointed United defence. We shall return to this latter point.

For those seeking some consolation there were plenty of plus points. The result was a freak. Apart from Leicester scoring every one of their five shots on goal, you will never again see a United performance like this.

And if Falcao's sublime shot that hit the crossbar earlier had finished in the net to make it 4-1 we could have been talking about a cricket score.

Louis van Gaal is more to blame than his players.

So far this season we must have had a hundred references to 'the philosophy' by the Dutchman. Does this 'philosophy' include being able to defend?

After the QPR result, United fans would have expected goals galore for the rest of the season, simply because of the 'Gaalacticos' fire-power. That will still happen, even if the manager has to revert to a more defensive formation.

There can be few excuses for what happened at the KP Stadium. Rafael, Mata and Rojo made terrible mistakes for Leicester's second and third goals. Jonny Evans and Rafael were AWOL for Ulloa's first header (for which Vardy's cross was out of play!)

In 'United in the Press' on MUTV, Evans was quoted as saying that he had previously been criticised for being two feet out of position. If that is what United's defenders heads are full of, it is no wonder they have problems.

The Daily Mail also showed a graphic of United's back four defending a Leicester attack. It was a 'diamond' rather than a flat back four!

So all of this starts with the manager. Yes, he has been unable to field the same defence in consecutive matches due to injuries (why have United had far more injuries than any other EPL side in the last three seasons?)

He utterly failed to buy a centre half in the transfer window and a defensive midfielder would have helped. Nobody really knows the truth about the Arturo Vidal saga; it's only speculation on doubts about his knee. But the stories about waiting until January to get Kevin Strootman won't go away.

Now it's easy to understand why United might want a world class centre half. They already have Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, not to mention Marcos Rojo, but what they are missing is a natural defensive leader, as Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were.

There are actually very few such centre halves in the world. Manchester City had to pay over £30 million for Eliaquim Mangala, but they also have Vincent Kompany, arguably the best in the world. Barcelona had to settle for Thomas Vermaelen, who United were rumoured to want. Dortmund simply refuse to sell Mats Hummels.

What is hard to understand though is why Van Gaal let Ezequiel Garay go to Zenit St Petersburg for under £10 million when the lad seemed keen on United. And also why he never fancied William Carvalho in midfield, who United have scouted countless times.

How else is Van Gaal to blame?

It is interesting to listen to the manager rehearsing his excuses. “It will take at least three months... It is about learning our philosophy... The players kept giving the ball away... etc.”

But before the Leicester match, Van Gaal said he had volumes of reports from his assistant
on every match they had played this season. He knew they would use long balls and play down the wings. So why was there little evidence of all this planning and preparation when the opposition ran rampant?

Van Gaal's adoption of 3-5-2 on tour and at the start of the season may have been pragmatic, but it is an alien formation to the likes of Evans, Smalling and Jones. It has to be learned.

And then as soon as they got used to playing it, suddenly he changed to a 4-1-2-1-2 'diamond' saying that he fits the system round the players available. Now there is talk that Michael Carrick may be asked to play in central defence, which suggests 3-5-2 will be back; probably against West Ham, but without Carrick.

The trouble is that there were too many questions about the manager's decisions against Leicester.

For starters, why didn't Luke Shaw play? Rojo is a first choice for Argentina; played well at the World Cup; why wasn't the defence against Leicester Rafael, Blackett, Rojo and Shaw, or even plus Evans in a 3-5-2? Everybody keeps saying Shaw will be the best in the world, so why isn't he playing?

Why was Di Maria taken off when the Leicester defence were scared of him and one more rash tackle would have had De Laet sent off? Why was Mata brought on instead of Shaw or Fletcher? Van Gaal saying his players should have 'shut up shop' frankly doesn't hold water because he brought on two more attacking players.

And why was he playing a 'diamond' rather than 3-5-2 or even 4-3-3 if he knew how Leicester were going to play. Nigel Pearson deserves credit for matching up the formation and then going for it just as much as United did?

Desperate measures are needed

Van Gaal cannot get a new central defender or midfielder before January; by then it could be too late realistically to finish in the top four, let alone the corporate target of top three. United have had a real chance to get into contention this season.

They were given an easy fixture list, which they've largely blown; and even at the weekend most of their rivals gave them a chance to claw back the deficit. At 3-1 they would have sat sixth in the table; now they languish in 12th.

And if they lose against West Ham the cries will be out to bring back David Moyes...

In reality, first Van Gaal needs to get all his players defending as well as attacking; he will have to use 3-5-2 for starters, despite having three centre-backs injured. And Rafael must be dropped to get the point home that juvenile irresponsibility won't be tolerated.

So the line-up on Saturday may well be: De Gea; Smalling, Blind, Rojo; Vermijl, Herrera, Fletcher, Di Maria, Shaw; Rooney, Falcao; with Lindegaard, Thorpe, Perreira, Mata, Van Persie, Januzaj and Valencia on the bench.

But frankly, as soon as most people are fit United should revert to the 4-3-3 that Van Gaal was brought up with at Ajax. With the flexibility that his squad has, this can be adapted as necessary to 4-4-2, 4-1-2-1-2 or even 3-5-2, even within a match, as the circumstances dictate.

And the other benefits out of the shock at the KP Stadium are that the 'Gaalacticos' will have been shocked out of any complacency and there are plenty examples of shoddy and shockingly bad play to work on.

Things can only get better. United are going to play some 'fantasy football' this year; they will be a great draw for the neutrals and hopefully for the Old Trafford faithful as well, starting on Saturday.

Surely they couldn't get any worse?

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