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It’s hard to find a fan or pundit these days who thinks Louis van Gaal deserves to keep his job. The team has fewer points this season than David Moyes earned when he was queued up for the sack. The play — a few bright sparks aside — has been flat and uninspiring. Players look bored, fans are bored, even van Gaal has said he’s bored.
But for all that, there’s still value to be taken from van Gaal’s turbulent tenure at Old Trafford, something that may make this period look far better in retrospect: his use of youth.
Consider the hero of this week’s victory against FC Midtjylland — a teenager named Marcus Rashford. That’s a player who most top managers most likely wouldn’t have risked a must-win on. True, van Gaal has a depleted side (which is arguably his fault), and needed someone to step in after a surprise injury to Anthony Martial. But the fact remains, the kid got a chance to play and proved he deserved it.
And he’s not alone. Before him, Paddy McNair, Jesse Lingard and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson all made their debuts under van Gaal and have all shown promise. And van Gaal’s best bit of transfer business was almost certainly the purchase of young Martial.
This will be the greatest irony of the van Gaal era: for all the outlay on big names, it is the youth he gave a chance to that will earn him a place in United history. For all the burnouts and disappointments of recent years — from injury-prone Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw to underwhelming Bastian Schweinsteiger and Memphis Depay to nonstarter Victor Valdes — van Gaal’s gift to United will be a trove of young talent that the next manager can use better.
And since that next manager is likely Jose Mourinho, it is a good thing they made their marks now. Mourinho has a reputation for bringing in talent instead of raising it up, but he’ll have a tough time avoiding playing the starlets at his disposal. And that might actually work in his favor. Because the young players seem to be the only ones interested in playing the United way. When these youngsters are on the field, they are attacking; play is direct and fast and exciting.
That’s a foundation worth building from. And while that may mean a lot of big names have to be shuffled off for other big names abroad, it also means United can remain United, a team with hungry, homegrown talent at its heart.
Unfortunately for van Gaal, he won’t end up seeing this renaissance. His tactics and attitude have left him with few friends willing to give him credit for anything at the moment, no matter how many 5-1 victories he ratchets up against meager competition.
But all the same, the United faithful will end up being grateful. Van Gaal has seen the future with these youngsters. He just won’t be there to enjoy it.
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