Van Gaal leaves Man United an underwhelming success
Louis van Gaal's Manchester United managerial career has come to an end and his final game as boss took the tone of his two years in charge.
He will leave Old Trafford with his dignity and reputation intact but will be tagged as a footnote in the club's history following two seasons of competence but little more at at the helm.
United have been ponderous – too ponderous to be truly successful – and lack the imagination to cause issues for even the most sluggish of teams.
The Dutchman arrived in the summer of 2014 with the aim of rebuilding the team after an atrocious spell under David Moyes. In fairness to the brash manager, he achieved his early goals by moulding a team that finished fourth in the Premier League, returning them to Europe’s top-flight.
However, when given the opportunity to build on a state of adequacy, Van Gaal has floundered in a season when plenty was there for the taking, something summed up on the Wembley turf on Saturday, even though he got away with it under the arch.
The necessity of accommodating Wayne Rooney into the side has seen him recently try to reinvent himself as a Paul Scholes-esque central midfielder. Sadly for United and Rooney this conversion is not a simple one and his speed of thought is not at the same level of his former team-mate, meaning he slows down the game, hampering any flowing football.
Rooney sitting alongside a winding down Michael Carrick defined United as a team - slow and ineffective - as Palace used their pace to strike fear into United, forcing two of their back four into conceding a booking in the opening 45 minutes.
There were certainly moments of lucidity from the United skipper with his usual cross-field passes to Antonio Valencia a highlight and some neat link-up play with Juan Mata causes problems but this was all too rare.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, United's key source of speed, looked threatening, especially when allowed to compete with Scott Dann and Damien Delaney but it was all too rare that they saw the ball ahead of them, instead forced to make their own chances in the final third.
It’s of little surprise that United netted only 49 goals in the league this season – one more than 17th placed Sunderland. It could have been far fewer if it wasn’t for the emergence of Rashford who scored five after breaking into the team thanks to injuries, a rare slice of luck for Van Gaal.
When Rashford had to wander off the pitch with an injury, United could only call upon Ashley Young to replace him as a lone striker, proof of the lack of depth Van Gaal has after selling the likes of Javier Hernandez with little reason.
By the time Jason Puncheon smashed Crystal Palace into the lead with just over ten minutes to go United could boast of having five players out of position, which a cohesive unit does not make.
Having endured a game of utter mediocrity, Rooney stepped up when things mattered, driving through Palace’s rearguard before setting up Mata for an equaliser, but the fact such an event surprised all those watch was a sign of Rooney’s poor form.
Jesse Lingard secured Van Gaal’s legacy with his extra-time winner but soon after Jose Mourinho’s representatives briefed the media that the Portuguese will take the helm at Old Trafford early next week, seeing Van Gaal depart with the FA Cup in his backpocket and a decent pay-off in his wallet.
No one will begrudge the ex-Barcelona boss his one and only moment of glory in England but never again will we hear the words 'Louis van Gaal’s army', making it a poorer footballing landscape.
The Premier League won’t mourn, though, as Mourinho will sweep into town on the greatest public relations exercise of his life in order to quick rebuild his reputation, hoping upon all hope that he will get Old Trafford singing his name, but he's already one trophy behind Van Gaal.