Louis van Gaal went to bed last night with the sweet taste of victory in his mouth, but he might not have slept so soundly had he gone through with his plan to substitute Juan Mata.
Mata led from the front on his first appearance as Manchester United captain, scoring a delicious 83rd-minute free kick to hand Van Gaal a much-needed victory over Watford.
Van Gaal and his players walked off the pitch feeling lucky after having their goal peppered by an intelligent, fast-moving Watford side. And when they glanced up at the TV screens on their way down the tunnel, they noticed that fortune had favoured them across the rest of the country too.
“The victory tastes very good, especially when your competitors have lost,” Van Gaal said.
Last night’s results could not have gone better for Van Gaal, but he almost scuppered his chances of victory when he spotted that Mata was hobbling in the second half.
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Jesse Lingard was ordered to do some sprints on the touchline. Then, Van Gaal had a change of heart and replaced Ander Herrera, rather than Mata, with Lingard. The United manager wanted to wait and see if his captain for the night could run off his knock.
The decision proved to be a wise one, for with seven minutes left, United won a free kick 25 yards out when Miguel Britos fouled Anthony Martial. It was prime Mata territory. United had won a free kick in a similar area earlier in the half and Mata had handed the ball to Memphis Depay, but he wasted the opportunity, driving the ball straight into the wall.
Mata made no such mistake this time. The Spain midfielder took it himself and curled the ball up and over the seven springing Watford players in the wall and past Heurelho Gomes, who winced as he saw the ball fly past his outstretched right arm into the top corner.
“It was true,” Van Gaal said when asked if he was going to take Mata off.
“He was limping at that time but we were in a better moment and I changed the shape so I didn’t want to change him anymore. Then I didn’t want to make the change again and then he scored the goal so I am very happy that I let him stay [on].”
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Had he removed Mata and United had failed to find the net, they would have gone home kicking themselves at missing such a golden opportunity to put themselves back in the hunt for the top four.
Instead, the United fans who enjoyed watching their youthful team defeat Arsenal and Midtjylland with a flurry of goals are starting to dream again.
Van Gaal, however, is not. The Dutchman, who selected Marcus Rashford and six other academy graduates in his matchday squad, chose to temper expectations straight after the final whistle.
“We have to go step by step. We have four wins in a row, fantastic, but we have a very small [squad to pick from] at the moment,” he said.
It is easy to see why Van Gaal tried to play down expectations. His squad is so hit by injuries that one player in last night’s team, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, on his full debut, did not even have his name printed on the back of the matchday programme.
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And in truth, United were rather fortunate to come away from this match with anything. Watford headed back to home last night scratching their heads, wondering how they did not claim their first win at Old Trafford since 1978.
Odion Ighalo admitted in January that he would not be able to turn down a move to Old Trafford and he did not improve his remote chances of a transfer to United last night.
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He squandered an opportunity to put Watford ahead early on when he picked up Daley Blind’s poor pass and raced through before failing to finish. He then spun Marcos Rojo in the box and shot wide from eight yards before missing another one-on-one duel with David De Gea. After the break the Nigerian curled a shot wide when he came face to face with United’s Spanish goalkeeper.
Had Ighalo been in the form he showed for Watford in the opening half of the season, United would have been beaten before half-time. But his profligacy was punished when Mata sent his free kick over the wall and into the net.
Watford thought they should have had a penalty when Matteo Darmian manhandled Sebastian Prödl in the box, but Mike Jones, the referee, waved play on and United went on to claim a valuable victory that put them level on points with fourth-placed Manchester City.