Louis van Gaal said during Manchester United’s pre-season tour that it would take “10 weeks” for him to get his side playing in his preferred fashion.
He has since stretched that to “three months”, but the precise detail is less relevant than the general call for patience.
Van Gaal, 63, is an idiosyncratic manager importing a style of football that is alien to most of his new players.
History suggests that it often takes time for his methods to work. He was in his third season at both Ajax and AZ Alkmaar before he won Dutch league titles, while the start of his tenure at Bayern Munich yielded two points in their first three games, 12 from their first eight and 17 from their first 11.
That season, they won the league and cup double and reached the final of the Uefa Champions League.
Nobody expects a similar turnaround at United. In fact, there is a sense that if the system had not been badly broken, there would have been no need to bring in Van Gaal – an irascible and opinionated Dutchman – to fix it.
Still, people probably expected a little more than a limp loss to Swansea City, a scrappy 1-1 draw against Sunderland and a 4-0 embarrassment against MK Dons in the second round of the League Cup. The squad may not be of league-winning quality, but it is not that bad.
Early in a Van Gaal reign, it is common for his sides to suffer a defeat against a lesser team and for him to react to criticism by insisting that the “process” was fine.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect for United is that he has not yet taken that tack. Instead, he has responded to defeats by pointing out the obvious – honesty is a key trait – that the squad is lacking in certain areas.
The result of his grumbling has been a British record transfer fee spent on Angel Di Maria, who could make his debut in the incongruous setting of Turf Moor, a ground that is redolent of the best traditions of the English game but is not one that could be called glamorous, as they take on Burnley today.
Di Maria alone, though, cannot elevate United, nor can Marcos Rojo, when his work permit is finally sorted out. There still seems to be a deficiency in midfield and at centre-back, but even if United bring in players in those positions before the transfer window shuts on Monday, adapting to his methods will take time.
United, of course, both for reasons relating to finance and prestige, desperately need to finish in the top four this season to get back into the Champions League. But more realistically, this season is probably best regarded as a learning process.
Next season is when Van Gaal’s work can truly be judged. Football, though, is rarely that patient.
QPR COMING UP SHORT IN THE BALANCE ACT
On Sunday, Queens Park Rangers gave one of the limpest performances imaginable in losing 4-0 to Tottenham Hotspur.
Their manager, Harry Redknapp, was booed by the travelling QPR support after acceding to a chant from Tottenham fans for him to give them a wave.
QPR have won four of 27 Premier League games since he took charge of the club. The last of them was against Sunderland in March 2013, during his failed bid to help the London side avoid relegation.
He could desperately do with a repeat of that success today. That win, almost 18 months ago, was followed by a run of two points from nine games. Though they came back up through the Championship play-offs last season, there are already fears of a repeat.
The mood has not been helped by Wednesday’s League Cup loss to Burton Albion of League 2.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of their poor start has been Redknapp’s decision to use a 3-5-2 formation.
He believes it is the best way of using a strike pairing – he insists the forwards he has available cannot play up front by themselves – and three in central midfield.
That may be true, but the problem then is the back three. Richard Dunne is as brave as any defender, but he is slow, ponderous and wholly unsuited to the role of left-sided centre-back, which requires him to have the mobility to cover behind the full-back.
He was sacrificed at half time on Sunday as Redknapp returned to a back four.
The question, then, is two-fold. First, what shape will QPR use against Sunderland today at Loftus Road? Second, how has the squad been allowed to become so apparently self-contradictory, including some players who need a back four and some who need a back three?
It speaks of desperate mismanagement of recruitment.
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