The task of any Manchester United manager is to emulate his predecessors. Louis van Gaal did not just follow in the footsteps of Alex Ferguson and David Moyes, he surpassed them, albeit in unwanted fashion.
This completed a hat-trick of defeats for United in their last three trips to Everton. It is an unholy trinity. Ferguson lost 1-0 on his final visit, Moyes went down 2-0 in his last game in charge and Van Gaal was beaten 3-0 on his first visit to Goodison Park since he was an unused substitute for Royal Antwerp in a pre-season friendly in 1976.
If, at that rate, Everton can anticipate an otherwise improbable 4-0 triumph next season, United’s heaviest defeat to the Merseysiders in 23 years suggested they are further off a return to the summit than Van Gaal anticipated.
Statistics can illustrate much and, with a selective interpretation of the figures, the Dutchman had argued United’s poor start to the season cost them a title bid. Since November, indeed, their record rivals anyone’s.
Yet they scarcely resembled potential champions. Porous at the back and blunt in attack, United laboured and lost at Goodison Park. The trio of dynamic, destructive displays against Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester City have preceded a return to the days of sterile domination.
“It is the first time that I have seen that our motivation, inspiration and aggression was not as high as the opponents’,” Van Gaal said, arguing they were outfought. The alternative explanation was that United were out-thought.
They had 70 per cent of possession against Chelsea and 65 per cent at Everton and lost both, failing to score on either occasion. They are struggling to unlock structured, disciplined defences again. Roberto Martinez and Jose Mourinho may have little in common, but, while he denied it, the Everton manager appeared to have borrowed bits of his Chelsea counterpart’s blueprint. The idealist aped the pragmatist to great effect. United missed their distributor in chief.
It is always an exaggeration when sides, especially expensively assembled, star-studded line-ups, are described as one-man teams. Yet the difference between United’s results when Michael Carrick is present and absent is startling.
They win 75 per cent of games their vice-captain starts, just 38 per cent he does not. The calf strain that was a footnote to United’s derby win has had considerable consequences.
There has been a belated appreciation of Carrick’s talents of late, but such a reliance on a holding midfielder who turns 34 in the summer is dangerous. Others have been eulogised, too, and the odes to Marouane Fellaini have reflected one of the season’s feel-good stories. This represented a homecoming for the disappointment turned destroyer.
Yet while Fellaini has exerted a major influence of late, he was ineffectual at Goodison Park. Everton could afford to be generous in their applause for the man who was their record signing and became their most profitable sale. Last season, as he floundered at Old Trafford and Everton played a better brand of football, it was indisputable they were better off without him. Even when Everton have relapsed and United improved, there should be few regrets and recriminations.
Fellaini’s 2013 sale funded the purchase of James McCarthy. Indeed, it was so lucrative that he helped pay for the £28 million (Dh156m) acquisition of Romelu Lukaku, too.
Both are pieces of business that give Everton younger assets on the balance sheet. McCarthy made a considerable contribution on the pitch, too, powering forward to open the scoring.
“James is a sprinter playing in midfield,” Martinez said.
The slower Fellaini was ungainly and ill-tempered, substituted at half time to prevent him being sent off. History repeated itself with ignominy for an old Evertonian: for Moyes in 2014, read Fellaini in 2015.
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