For Manchester United to dominate from start to finish is Louis van Gaal’s holy grail. Despite the lofty third position and seven-game unbeaten run coming into this match – six of which were victories – the manager had complained about his team’s lack of 90-minute displays.
Going forward United are a formidable unit, as Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao and Juan Mata showed again. Yet the old problem of a slick attack having a shaky defence behind them, which causes the inconsistency Van Gaal bemoans, was evident in flashes during this regulation win.
It is a football truism that it is important to be able to win when not at your best but the manager’s concern is that superior sides to Newcastle United will take advantage of the fragilities, as Alan Pardew’s team might have done before crumpling after the interval.
Newcastle are in the collapse phase of the boom-and-bust cycle that is marking out Pardew’s tenure. They left Old Trafford nursing a third consecutive league defeat.
The 3-0 defeat of Hull City in late November has become the reference point of how Van Gaal wants United to dominate and he ended this victory able to use the D-word. “Yes, I think we have dominated 90 minutes, the game, and we scored fantastic goals and we could have scored much more goals so I have seen an attacking Manchester United,” he said. “So I am very pleased with the performance.”
Van Gaal does not merely want the three points to be taken. He demands omnipotence from his United XI, a desire that illustrates the perfectionist within him.
After Liverpool were beaten 3-0 here in the previous home match Van Gaal was again unhappy that United had not been convincing throughout.
The early signs against Newcastle were that his players might struggle to reach the high mark set by their manager. When Ayoze Pérez galloped through the home side’s defence – Paddy McNair finally stuck out a leg to intercept – here was a prime example of what is frustrating Van Gaal. His wish is for the opposition to be pressed and strangled when they have the ball, and starved of it for long periods when United have possession.
The alarm bells rang again when Newcastle broke quickly following a corner and Moussa Sissoko aimed a cross at Yoan Gouffran before Mata, who had raced back, tripped Gouffran in the area in a challenge that might have conceded a penalty.
Mitigation can be found in the number of times Van Gaal has been forced to rejig his defence. The Phil Jones-McNair-Jonny Evans back three fielded in this 18th Premier League game was the 22nd different combination (including substitutions) in central defence. Van Gaal has been forced into constant reshuffles because of injuries.
Going forward there are few problems as the sweet, fluid moves that led to each of United’s goals underlined. For the first a neat Mata pass to Falcao was followed by a superb volleyed touch into Rooney, who could hardly miss and did not.
The second came when Mata again slipped the captain in and he scored, before Rooney showed why Van Gaal is deploying him in midfield, delivering a diagonal pass on to Robin van Persie’s head for the third.
Before kick-off the manager said: “When we are performing well and dominating matches on a consistent basis, then the results will come naturally. We probably haven’t seen enough of that recently. An example came at Aston Villa in our last game. It was a very frustrating match and we gave two points away.”
This was a far better display than at Villa Park. Despite Papiss Cissé’s late penalty Van Gaal, who expects most of his injured players to return within a fortnight, can be pleased, though the sense remains that United are still reaching to find the total dominance that has marked their most successful seasons. Still, the excellent Rooney is able to debate an outside title challenge. “There is still a long way to go, we know that,” he said. “We’ve chased leads down before and we’ve lost leads ourselves before, and by a big number of points. Anything can still happen, especially in the next week or two. There are a lot of games.”
