Manchester United: Louis van Gaal’s 5 Strangest Tactical Decisions

1. Manchester United 1-1 Liverpool

When Liverpool’s team was announced, there were only three defenders present in the starting XI, and that was because Milner was playing at left-back.

Immediately, thoughts turned to who Van Gaal would deploy on the right-hand side to test out Milner’s lack of familiarity with the position. Martial, Rashford and Jesse Lingard all had the pace and dribbling ability to trouble the midfielder-turned-left-back.

When the game kicked off, it was Mata who began on the right wing. If Milner had the choice of who he could play directly against in the match, it would have been the Spaniard. Mata, of course, is one of United’s most technically gifted players, but he desperately lacks speed, strength and athleticism. He also tends to drift inside when he plays on the right.

The end result was that Milner strolled through the game without too much to worry about. United, bewilderingly, failed to put him under any sort of pressure.

Throughout the match, you looked for little milestones that might suggest it was a good time to change tactics: after 30 minutes, at half-time and after 60 minutes were the big ones.

But not once did United try to target Milner.

In keeping with his poor tactical decisions in the game, Van Gaal made three shocking substitutions again, swapping both full-backs and making a like-for-like switch in central midfield.

Next: United 1-1 Liverpool: 5 Key Statistics

Thursday’s game against Liverpool was United’s biggest match of the season thus far. It was symbolic of Van Gaal’s tenure at the club that the game was typified by dreadful tactical decisions and unadventurous substitutions.