There cannot be too many better examples of a manager damning a player with faint praise than Louis van Gaal’s assessment of Radamel Falcao yesterday. On the one hand, the Manchester United manager seemed to be trying to build up the Colombia striker’s shattered confidence, then, in the next moment, took a sledgehammer to it. It was the equivalent of blowing up a balloon in front of an excitable child, only to pop the thing at the moment of handover.
Falcao’s troubled season appeared to hit a new low on Tuesday when he was called up to play for United’s reserve team, only 24 hours after being left on the substitutes’ bench for the FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Van Gaal dismissed suggestions yesterday that the move had been a “humiliation” for Falcao, the manager insisting that he had done so in a bid to boost the player’s fragile self-belief and give him some much-needed playing time before a critical run of fixtures, starting at home to Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow, that he admits will shape the club’s season. According to Van Gaal, the under-21 squad was a useful tool in that regard and, besides, why should a club who spend fortunes on players not reserve the right to utilise all options?
“Every player needs match rhythm and we pay a lot for the players, so it is normal they play football for us and that is also in the second team,” Van Gaal said before praising Falcao’s reaction to the decision. It was what followed that may have sat less comfortably with a player who scored 200 goals in 302 appearances for River Plate, Porto, Atletico Madrid and Monaco before his loan move to Old Trafford.
As well as admitting that Falcao had toiled against Tottenham’s second string before being substituted after 73 minutes, Van Gaal said that he was searching for a cure to the player’s struggles after accepting that he had not adapted well to English football. All of which is true, if not entirely helpful to a player who looks in need of an arm around his shoulder after only four goals in 20 appearances.
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“Falcao didn’t play his best match in the second team, but he tried to do his utmost best, and more I can’t ask of players,” Van Gaal said.
“We are looking for the solution for him but you never can know [why it is not working out]. That’s also the beauty of football — that you can give fantastic performances in another country but not in the country you are playing in presently. A lot of players need more time to adapt to the new situation, to the new culture, to the higher rhythm of the English game.
“You can easily write, ‘He can’t play football, he didn’t do that’. But I don’t want to say that because Falcao, and all the other players, are working very hard.”
Which is all very well, only Falcao, with just a few months remaining on his loan deal from Monaco, does not have time on his side. Van Gaal bristled when asked if United planned to pay the £43.5 million required to keep the player on. “That is a discussion I do with Ed Woodward [the United executive vice-chairman], not you,” the manager told his inquisitor. “In my opinion you cannot ask that. I do not ask your boss if he wants to maintain you.”
Yet that did little to alter the view that Falcao’s hopes of an extended stay at Old Trafford seem wishful at best.
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Perhaps more tough love is required at United, though. Just as David Moyes invited opprobrium for his perceived indecision, tactical shortcomings and poor man-management last season before being sacked, so Van Gaal has encountered similar questions over his chopping and changing of system and personnel and United’s risk-averse football. Results may have been a little better under Van Gaal and a top-four finish is still within their grasp, but the scrutiny on the Dutchman has been intense nonetheless.
Yet after 20 months of drudgery and with the visit of Spurs preceding games against Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea that will go a long way towards determining whether United face another season outside the Champions League, maybe the spotlight should be focusing more sharply on players who continue to punch well below their weight.
Van Gaal pointed out recently that it is “not always the fault of the manager when a player is not performing well”, but while he may continue to stand accused of contributing significantly to that problem, there is plenty that is out of his control and for which complaints over formations and tactics alone cannot explain.
Falcao’s reluctance to run in behind defenders and showcase the sort of quicksilver movement that earned him such a formidable reputation cannot be pinned solely on the way Van Gaal sets up. Similarly, the sight of Ángel Di María being knocked off the ball or ballooning crosses and passes into touch is not entirely down to a philosophy that is blamed for suffocating the creative types in United’s squad.
Van Gaal encourages his defenders to play the ball out from the back, but Chris Smalling’s tendency to invite pressure with unforced errors is a failing he must work through.
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With the exception of David De Gea, few, if any, players have enhanced their reputation over the course of the past two seasons. Many have flatlined, plenty of others have gone backwards and too few of the new signings have made a tangible impact.
Indeed, it speaks volumes for the extent to which the Spain goalkeeper has saved his team-mates this term that, despite making more errors that have led to chances for opponents than any side bar Everton in the league, United have conceded two goals on the back of those 25 mistakes. Everton’s 29 blunders have led to 14 goals.
Van Gaal said that he was waiting for “the big victory” that will give his players “more spirit and also more confidence to win our games”. Many would argue that he has waited long enough.