I’ve just finished watching a replay of our 7-0 demolition of LA Galaxy which took place in the early hours of this morning and I’m smiling from ear to ear.
Impressive though it is, forget the scoreline for a moment. After the turgid mess that Moyes foisted upon us last season, this felt like I was actually watching Manchester United again.
Without wishing to get too carried away with the result of one game, it does look like Van Gaal has come in and got us playing within the space of a few days in a way Moyes could only ever dream of had he managed us for a decade.
This was the United we know and love – fast, one-touch passing, lots of movement, nothing predictable about it whatsoever. The exact opposite of everything we saw from United under Moyes.
I do believe that Van Gaal made ten changes at half-time with the score at 3-0 and the only player to play the whole 90 minutes was our new man Herrera and what a performance he put in.
I lost count of how many penetrating through balls he played which, in itself, is something that we rarely saw last season as much of our attacking play came from wide positions.
If this performance is any indication then we’ve got a star on our hands here. He was excellent.
Van Gaal also showed that he’s not only looking at the established players as he brought on Reece James, Tyler Blackett and Michael Keane to make up three parts of the defence in the second half.
The fact that he had to deploy Darren Fletcher in there to make up the numbers because, in his own words, he “had no more defenders” perhaps points to where Van Gaal will be looking to strengthen before the transfer window closes because I still do feel that we are lacking a top class experienced defender now that Vidic and Rio have both departed.
It might be tempting to look upon this results as “just a friendly” and it was “only against LA Galaxy” but make no mistake about it. LA Galaxy came into this friendly midway through their domestic season and boasting the best defensive record in the MLS so far this season.
Losing 7-0 was never part of their plan here but we were simply irresistible and if this is how Van Gaal can get us playing after a few days in charge, we should be pretty frightening by the time the season gets underway.
Almost as though Van Gaal wanted to let everyone know what a maverick genius of a manager he is, he had the team play the second half without even a recognised striker.
Rooney and Welbeck made the forward two in the first half (and scored all three goals between them with Rooney grabbing two) but they were both taken off at half time and replaced with…? I’m not sure. I suppose Nani was ostensibly the “striker” but the four second half goals were scored by Reece James and Ashley Young.
As already mentioned, there could have been more as time and time again, the excellent Herrera played balls straight through the heart of the LA Galaxy defence and it was just a bit unfortunate that, on occasion, they were slightly overhit – I feel certain that the touch will return after a few pre-season matches under his belt, though.
All in all, this was the perfect start for Louis Van Gaal and I’m already looking forward to the next game with relish… a feeling that I largely lost for much of last season.