Manchester United fans will have been appeased by the start their team has made to it’s second season under the control of Louis van Gaal, rather than delighted by it.
The club currently sit fourth in the Premier League table after results which have been satisfactory, without setting the division alight.
Van Gaal appears to have had most success in steadying the ship at the back with United’s defence, led by Chris Smalling, making steady improvement.
At the other end of the field, however, United are much less enthralling than their fan base would like and the free scoring champagne football of the Sir Alex Ferguson era looks long gone for the time being at least.
The Old Trafford outfit have ascended into the Champions League places, netting just 15 goals in the process. That’s five less than Leicester City and only two more than Everton, who are in the bottom half.
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The truth is, that aside from the impact of teenager Anthony Martial, the Red Devils have looked fairly flat in the final third until now.
It’s possible, though, that van Gaal has begun to gradually unearth the answer.
Ander Herrera has featured heavily of late as the most advanced of the three players the Dutchman prefers to deploy in midfield.
The Spanish midfielder has been a fixture of the side ever since he played a key role in the North West derby victory over Liverpool and seems to be one of the first names on the team sheet at the minute as van Gaal searches for an attacking unit with enough fluidity and understanding to begin unlocking Premier League defences.
Herrera arrived in Manchester for a hefty £28.9million in the summer of 2014, but his first season proved to be an anti-climax. The former Bilbao man was in and out of a regularly changing side as United grappled their way into fourth spot.
The additional high profile midfield recruits this summer seemed to signal that Herrera’s chance to become a key component of the Old Trafford engine room might have come and gone within a year.
This term, though, he seems to be starting to establish himself as an important player who might just help the club’s other talents click into place.
The recent 3-0 win over Everton was one of van Gaal’s side’s best performances of the season to date, and a game in which Herrera was instrumental. The Basque-born man was also one of the standouts on the tricky away trip to Moscow, in which United rescued a Champions League point after a bad start.
Particularly evident in Russia, was the midfielder’s exceptional ability to make good use of the ball in tight spaces. On numerous occasions he found himself surrounded by CSKA defenders but managed to keep his side’s attack on track with tidy footwork and eye catching awareness.
The 26-year-old is an especially tidy player and his recent displays have shown a range of passing that seems to justify van Gaal’s decision to experiment with using him in the playmaker role. Herrera will also contribute to the Red Devils’ attacking threat directly with his goal scoring ability. He netted eight times in his debut season and has three already this term.
He seems the one central midfielder in the United ranks with a genuine chance of making double figures this season and his finishing is as composed as many of the forwards in the league. In fact, when he netted against Everton, he had scored with each of his three shots on target for the season.
Aside from his goals the Spanish international has the ability to bring a range of benefits to the United attack. He has a knack of arriving in the box at the right time that is reminiscent of Paul Scholes, but also the vision to bring wingers inside their full back with a well weighted pass.
He also boasts the close control to unlock a defence that is proving difficult to break down. With a quality playmaker at the heart of the attack, van Gaal has solved half of the puzzle.
He now needs the likes of Rooney, Martial and Memphis Depay to start taking up the right positions and making the right runs to maximise the damage Herrera can do.
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