Louis van Gaal is different in much he does. The Dutchman prepared for what may be his last game as Manchester United manager by highlighting how Crystal Palace could beat them to win the FA Cup.
“They have scored a lot out of set-plays,” he said. “They have 29 goals from the 56 they have scored from set-pieces and that is a lot – more than we have done.”
The pertinent element is not how many goals United have scored from dead-ball situations, but how many they have conceded, especially lately.
It is their Achilles heel. It is no exaggeration to say that if United could defend set-pieces, they would be in next season's Uefa Champions League.
They dropped five points in their last four league games: drawing 1-1 with Leicester City when Wes Morgan, who dominated an aerial duel with Marcos Rojo, escaped the Argentinian to head in Danny Drinkwater's free kick, and squandering a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2 at West Ham United when Dimitri Payet's deliveries, either in first or second phase of free kicks, yielded two goals, with Michail Antonio eluding Antonio Valencia and Winston Reid outjumping Daley Blind.
• Read more: Diego Forlan – Even winning FA Cup may not be enough to save Louis van Gaal
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Go back further and James Tomkins scored from another Payet centre when United won 2-1 at Upton Park in the FA Cup.
Rojo was culpable again when Toby Alderweireld headed in during Tottenham Hotspur's 3-0 win in April. Earlier this month, Van Gaal accepted United have difficulties.
"We are normally the smallest team in the Premier League so we always have problems with set-plays," he said.
The bemusing element is that he tends to make such observations with the air of a detached onlooker, rather than a manager who has had a quarter of a billion pounds to spend constructing a squad that does not have such obvious weaknesses.
Van Gaal has failed to replace taller players like Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Robin van Persie, who have left. He has selected the smaller Blind at centre-back.
“A lot of people in England have this thought that a centre-half has to be 6ft, 2ins, and win everything in the air. But I am not like that,” said the Netherlands international.
His reinvention has worked in many respects. Except at set-pieces, where his lack of inches is an issue.
Van Gaal hinted the giant Marouane Fellaini, who is available again after suspension, will be brought back into the United team on Saturday.
Selecting the Belgian is often an attacking move. Here it may be a defensive gambit. Another option is to recall Rojo in place of Cameron Borthwick-Jackson although, given the Argentinian’s recent record of losing opponents, his height may be no advantage.
Even with Fellaini and Chris Smalling, however, Van Gaal will not have enough tall players to match up against Palace.
It is telling that centre-back Scott Dann finished as their joint top scorer in the Premier League, reflecting both his set-piece menace and their lack of a potent finisher. His defensive sidekick Damien Delaney is actually bigger; he flicked on Yohan Cabaye’s corner for Yannick Bolasie to head in Palace’s semi-final opener against Watford.
The Congolese is a rarity, a winger who is a six-footer. Captain Mile Jedinak offers aerial prowess from the centre of midfield.
Striker Connor Wickham, who headed the winner against Watford, is likely to be preferred to the shorter, quicker Dwight Gayle as the main attacker.
Palace should have five targets in the penalty box and, in Cabaye, a technician capable of finding them. They are a club whose favourite FA Cup memory stems from a set-piece, when Alan Pardew, midfielder then and manager now, headed in the corner that secured a 4-3 win over Liverpool in the 1990 semi-finals.
It was a move Palace recreated for Bolasie’s goal at Wembley Stadium 26 years later.
Now Van Gaal, managing perhaps the biggest club in the world, has to find a way to stop one of England’s biggest teams. He is a manager under the microscope and this is a trial by set-pieces.
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