Louis van Gaal has now been in charge of Manchester United for 57 league games, which is exactly three periods of nineteen games. Consistently during this period, the Dutchman has been going on about how his Old Trafford tenure should be perceived as a 'process', but are things really moving in the right direction? VAVEL had a look at the goal figures, highlighting the major flaw of this season's United outfit.
As Manchester United fans are used to seeing their side go all guns blazing, the winds of change have surrounded Old Trafford after Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. Over the past three seasons with the Scot in charge, the Red Devils produced 253 successful strikes, which makes an average of 2.2 goals per game. His successor, David Moyes, celebrated 56 league goals in the dugout, which averages 1.6 times per game, and Ryan Giggs' somewhat insignificant spell included eight goals over four games, exactly 2.0 per outing.
Declining even from Moyes' level
Van Gaal's main priority in his first months at the helm was to reestablish defensive structure, inevitably on behalf of the attacking football the fans are used to. The opening half of the 2014/15 campaign included 33 goals in favour of the reds, marginally better than David Moyes record, with 1.74 reasons to celebrate per game on average.
From there, however, there has been downhill. Measured by goals, Van Gaal's side peaked already in his fourth game, driving comfortably past QPR to win 4-0. Ever since, United have played 53 league games, not scoring four times once. That's mirrored in the averages, with the latter half of 14/15 only including 29 league goals, an average of 1.53 per game – narrowly below David Moyes, who was labelled insufficient by the United board. And it wasn't going to get better.
Not as bad since the relegation
This season, with United starting off well in terms of picking up points, only losing once in the first seven games, against their consistent nemesis Swansea, the goals have been basically absent. The club hasn't seen their men score less goals per game since 1973/74, when most things went wrong and it ultimately cost them a one-year absence from the top flight. That's 42 years ago.
Over the most recent six games, Bastian Schweinteiger, Marouane Fellaini and Anthony Martial are the only ones to find the way to the back of the net, doing it once each. And the average over the past 19 games, with the goalless draw against Chelsea included, has dropped to a staggering 1.16 per game. That's a worse record than anyone in the top eight of the Premier League, and both Manchester City and Leicester might actually double United's tally within January, both having scored 37 times. To add an unwanted context, four years ago, Wayne Rooney managed 0.8 goals a game on average on his own.
Time for change
So for how long can the Glazer family, fronted by the club's CEO Ed Woodward, watch United's goal record decline game by game, and United continously fall further behind? Going by point averages in recent years, both Arsenal, Leicester and Manchester City are steering steadily towards the third or fourth spot, but United will soon enough be a shambolic ten points behind every single one of them if nothing changes.