Word is getting around that Louis van Gaal encourages Manchester United to play boring football. That was the charge the manager faced when Dutch journalists arrived in the north‑west for this game and Van Gaal did not specifically deny it, he merely invited critics to take a look for themselves and make up their own mind. If they did, they would hardly have been impressed.
As European nights at Old Trafford go, not to mention the 10th anniversary of George Best’s death, it has to be said that excitement was at a premium. Jesse Lingard did his best to inject pace and invention, but breathing creative life into a stubbornly moribund United might be a task beyond a 22-year‑old with only a handful of first-team appearances.
After offering such a hostage to fortune Van Gaal must have been hoping for a performance that was incisive, if not entertaining, yet he saw more of the stodginess that has characterised United’s season. While there is a school of thought that says slow and patient is the way to go in Europe – Sir Alex Ferguson always used to counsel against being too gung ho – this was not the result or the statement United were looking for.
A win here and United could have put themselves beyond PSV’s reach, leaving Van Gaal’s Dutch critics to worry about their own team’s performance and a mathematically slim chance of progressing at Wolfsburg’s expense. This result puts the Germans in charge of the group, having won earlier in Moscow, and it means United have everything to do away from home against the leaders in their last match, while PSV have an easier qualification route with a home game against the weakest opposition.
Boring might be too strong a word for a team that contains Anthony Martial and Memphis Depay, though the key point is that United are also building their moves around the considerably less mobile Wayne Rooney and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Sedate might be a better description, perhaps even stately. Van Gaal says he needs faster wingers, and with that objective in mind left out Juan Mata in favour of Lingard, though the latter spent most of the first half tucked in, with Matteo Darmian providing the width. There was a certain amount of flat passing, backwards passing and slow passing in the opening stages, though when the first real chance arrived it was a cross from Darmian that set it up. It was an excellent diagonal ball from Lingard that invited the full-back to run into space, to be fair, and when he sent over a cross it evaded Jeroen Zoet in the PSV goal but also eluded the outstretched boot of Rooney, arriving just a fraction of a second too late.
At least United showed a willingness to take the game to their opponents and attack, even if they lacked the ingenuity to open up PSV. When Martial did show some initiative, dummying a Rooney cross to leave a better shooting opportunity for Lingard, the winger was embarrassed by a heavy first touch. Martial might have been better taking the chance on himself, although on the couple of occasions when he did attempt to beat Zoet in the first half he found the goalkeeper equal to his efforts.
The worry for United at the interval was not just that a period of dominance had failed to produce a breakthrough, there was also evidence that the visitors could play a patient game more effectively. Davy Pröpper and Luuk de Jong had demonstrated how to split a defence on the half-hour, the former ghosting past Morgan Schneiderlin to set up a chance for Jorrit Hendrix that brought David de Gea into action for the first time.
It was arguably the closest the game had come to a goal and though United came storming upfield on the break on their next attack in an attempt to catch PSV with too many players in forward situations, Depay rather spoiled the stealth effect by falling over his own feet in the penalty area at the crucial moment.
Depay made way for Ashley Young in the second half and perhaps more significantly Schweinsteiger capped an unmemorable evening by being hauled off in favour of Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian initially stationed himself in midfield, where Schweinsteiger had been playing, though inexorably he was encouraged further and further forward as United became more desperate. Just as well, perhaps, since when Fellaini passed backwards from the centre circle he was jeered by his own supporters. That summed up the occasion, or lack of one.
The PSV supporters made more noise than their United counterparts, and in fairness they had more to cheer about. The visitors were better on the ball and smoother going forward. With a bit more desire they could probably have grabbed the goal that would have really ruined United’s night, though they seemed happy enough with the draw.
Any of the top three in Group B could still go out, even Wolfsburg should United and PSV both win their final games. Yet this was surely United’s best chance of securing qualification. They will have to play an awful lot better to get any sort of result at Wolfsburg, when the chances will be high that only a win will do.
