Mesut Özil has become a crucial creator for Arsenal, Simon Mignolet still makes his defenders nervous, Louis van Gaal is at least giving youth a chance and Everton are better than their recent results
It is not hard to pick holes in Louis van Gaal’s second-season Manchester United right now. Three wins in 12 matches with 10 goals scored, and two cup exits since the middle of October, looks like the Existential Crisis period of the Van Gaal philosophy. In the second half against Bournemouth United were desperately disappointing. The first half was a different story, however. In the first half United were simply quite disappointing. As has often been the case with Van Gaal, the best bits were a function of his willingness to field young players in difficult games. The back four could probably have been fudged with more experienced parts. Instead 18-year-old Cameron Borthwick-Jackson started his first game and did well enough. Borthwick-Jackson has been at the club since he was six. He was athletic and composed. He ran for 90 minutes and crossed the ball when he got the chance. Chuck in Jesse Lingard and Paddy McNair and United started with three genuine academy graduates and had nine players aged 23 or under on the pitch at some stage. Much of this is forced on Van Gaal by injuries – and, yes, this team of tyros was outplayed by Bournemouth. History suggests few of them will stick. Youth for youth’s sake does nobody any good if the players involved are not up to winning matches. But still this is United, a club that makes a fetish of its young players, and there will always be a fascination in seeing youth, even doomed youth, given a chance. In this respect, if few others right now, Van Gaal, the teacher-coach, is a perfect fit. Barney Ronay
Continue reading...from Network Front | The Guardian http://bit.ly/1P2AAL1
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