The pressure Louis van Gaal is feeling as Manchester United re-enter the Champions League after a 20-month hiatus showed when Adnan Januzaj was asked whether enough opportunity had been offered him as a player last season.
As Januzaj began to answer, the manager interrupted, saying he wished to make a statement. “Adnan has eight starts and 14 substitutions [actually 13] so he didn’t have any chances? This is not true, in my opinion. I want to stipulate that. A lot of people [think that] is not a good argument,” Van Gaal said, taking issue not only with the question’s substance but with how it was posed.
There were other flashes of tension from the 64-year-old. An example came when discussing whether Juan Mata should be moved to his natural No10 position. The questioner was invited to ask the United board for Van Gaal’s job. The manager also bridled over inquiries about David de Gea’s state of mind and Wayne Rooney’s form.
The Dutchman is a veteran operator who won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995 and reached the 2010 final with Bayern Munich. Yet this was as tense as Van Gaal has been. Earlier he billed the Champions League qualifying play-off with Club Brugge as the two “biggest individual games” of a tenure that began last summer.
The ensuing campaign was a first for 18 years not to feature United in the world’s premier club competition. David Moyes’ doomed incumbency consigned United to a seventh-place finish that meant no European football at all in Van Gaal’s opening term.
Now, as Michel Preud’homme’s Belgian league runners-up arrive at Old Trafford for evening’s opening leg, there is intense focus on Van Gaal and United.
When Jonas Eriksson blew for time in the Allianz Arena on 9 April 2014 United had lost 3-1 to Bayern Munich and were knocked out of the quarter-finals 4-2 on aggregate. The three-times European Cup winners would have to wait at least a season to return. That was the challenge for Van Gaal: to take United to a fourth-place finish and back into the Champions League at the first attempt.
The manager is conscious, however, that the competition proper does not begin until the group stage. To be eliminated by Brugge would be an embarrassment, a considerable financial loss, and mean the prospect of having to slog through the Europa League.
Januzaj’s performance in Friday’s evening’s 1-0 victory at Aston Villa may have saved his United career. The scale of his downward trajectory under Van Gaal was illustrated by a mooted loan move out of the club. Yet, given a surprise start at Villa Park as the No10, Januzaj scored the winner, seizing the chance to remind the manager of his quality.
Of Januzaj Van Gaal said: “The other players have no right? Only Adnan has a right? He has to compete with 23 or 24 other players. He is 20 years old. The characteristics of a young player is he is not consistent. He has to show that. Maybe he can show it this season. It is possible. In a club like Manchester United you never have a guarantee of a position in the top 11.
“He knows that and all the players know that and because of that we have a very good team spirit. If we didn’t have that, never you end last season in fourth place. You can say that as media that he has to have a position. It is so easy without responsibility to say that.”
Before the visit of Brugge the player who wears the No11 shirt once sported by Ryan Giggs was keen to dismiss any notion of not enjoying life under Van Gaal. “I am happy to play and give everything for the manager and the club,” he said. “I am happy the way the manager worked with me, so I don’t have any issues with that.”
Januzaj went as far as admitting he had been a disappointment in 2014-15. “I have not had a lot of games but this season maybe I get a few more opportunities to play. It can happen but you know this year is another year so I am ready to come back at my best and do everything that I can do.”
His hopes of a fine campaign are mirrored by Van Gaal’s desire to elevate United into the domestic and European elite again. Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, has stated United must compete in all competitions this year. The second leg against Brugge is next week. To be dumped out by a club last crowned Belgian champions a decade ago would mean Van Gaal had failed before the end of August, according to Woodward’s demand. This should not occur, of course, especially as the manager has spent £230m in 12 months. But it could be nerve-racking.
