Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan’s column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
I feel conflicting emotions when I watch my former club Manchester United. They are the biggest club in the world, a club I love from my time there, but when I watch them play it's not the United I knew. The team are struggling and this week missed out on the top four in the Premier League and a Uefa Champions League finish.
That would have been unheard of when I played there, but United are still undergoing a big transition since Alex Ferguson left. The fans might think it should be sorted out by now, but there are a number of factors why it is not. I know people are saying that Louis van Gaal should be sacked, but I have some sympathy for him and I hope he wins the FA Cup on Saturday.
Will that be enough to save his job? I don’t think anyone apart from Ed Woodward knows that. But it would be a first trophy for United in three years, a great trophy too. But first he has to win it with a team who have struggled by their own high standards this season.
See also:
• Steve Luckings: A weekend of cup finals for Man United, Barcelona, Bayern and PSG: Five games to watch
• Preview: Manchester United, in FA Cup final, at a place not unlike Alex Ferguson's 1990 team
• Team Talk podcast: Will it be Van Gaal, Mourinho or Giggs in charge at Old Trafford next season? - Ep 23
When Van Gaal talked of high expectations, I can see why. It's not his fault that United were used to winning all the time, and the club had no divine right to keep on winning. When I was at United, they could outbid any club for a player if needed. They could compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid to top up an already brilliant team which was full of home-grown players and top quality, record-breaking signings such as Roy Keane and Rio Ferdinand. Since then Chelsea and Manchester City have arrived with lots of money and they have not only spent it on first-team players, but attracting the best youth players. That's what United used to do.
Every Premier League team has a lot of money now. None of them need to sell now like they did only five years ago. This makes Van Gaal’s job harder. He didn’t inherit a Class of ’92 full of top youngsters either. That’s not his fault. He has used lots of young players and I really like the look of some of them, but the majority will likely spend most of their careers away from Old Trafford. He had to use them because the squad was full of injuries. Again, that wasn’t his fault.
When your best players get injured, you then rely on young players. It’s not even fair for them to be under so much pressure at the start of their careers. That’s for the senior players to deal with, but what if so many senior players are out?
The problem with a team in transition is that many people get hurt. Van Gaal has his idea of a team and it’s different from that of Ferguson or David Moyes. So he makes the changes. Very good players lose out because they don’t fit in with his ideas. Players good enough to be in the best teams in the world such as David de Gea play in a team which finishes seventh, fourth and fifth. You could understand why he would not be happy with that
United have many good players; they need more. The best players in the world used to play at United. Now, there are only a couple.
Van Gaal has bought players who he thinks can be great, or who are already great, but for various reasons they are not working out.
It slows down the transition, but new players do need time to settle in England. Trust me, I know. The football is so much faster and more frantic that you can’t start adapting to it immediately. Even English players, such as Luke Shaw, initially struggled at United. He looked much better in his second season. How good will Memphis Depay look then?
There are no guarantees with buying players either. Some just don’t work out. It needs a manager to build up a team, but that too takes time. There are no magic fixes.
I know it’s hard for fans used to success, but success is what only a few teams achieve. It’s not normal. You can’t just click your fingers and go back to how it was either because the league has changed: Leicester City are the champions of England, while Chelsea, the previous champions, finished mid-table. And for all United’s troubles they still finished level with City. They just lost out on goal difference because the team doesn’t score enough goals.
Of course the manager must take some of the blame – he chose to work with a small squad, for instance – but not all of it. He’s not the one on the pitch, one of the many international footballers – several who will miss out on the European Championship because they are playing in a faltering team.
To get back to success, the manager must be able to work in peace. That’s if the players and directors think he is right for the job. They are the ones who see his work most closely, just as the chairman saw Ferguson building up the youth system in the late 1980s. They stuck by him when everyone else wanted him sacked. And if they don’t think it is working and that United are not on the right track, then they can make the change after the cup final.
But first, Van Gaal, United fans – including myself – need to focus on enjoying the cup final.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport