Three wins from FA Cup but miles from convincing.
Louis Van Gaal hopes to take another step towards his first Manchester United trophy tomorrow.
Three more wins in the FA Cup and he will have achieved what he did at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich a piece of silverware in his debut season.
If he can combine that with a top-four finish in the Premier League, it’s job done. What’s not to like?
Well, quite a lot, actually, starting with the basics the way United play.
You could watch them every week under LVG, and still not have a clue about what they’re trying to do.
It’s bizarre when everyone knows that Van Gaal’s Plan B is to hoist long balls to Marouane Fellaini, yet no-one knows what Plan A is.
It’s hard to think of another instance when a team can win regularly, as United have done, yet convince nobody of their quality.
In their last home game, a corner by Ashley Young was collected by Daley Blind. He played it backwards to Jonny Evans and he knocked it back to keeper David de Gea.
Frustrated fans brought up on Sir Alex Ferguson’s philosophy of pinning opponents to the ropes and battering away until they submitted demanded that their team attack, attack, attack.
Van Gaal keeps telling them he, too, has a philosophy it’s his favourite word yet nine months into his tenure, no-one knows what he means by that, let alone what it is.
Fans can only judge on what they see. And they see little, if any, improvement in Van Gaal’s first 28 League games compared to his predecessor, David Moyes.
They thought Fergie’s “Chosen One” was too cautious and that, if nothing else, Van Gaal would give them more goals. He has. One more!
It’s almost unheard of for the best player in any United team to be its goalkeeper. Yet De Gea has been their Player of the Year by several country miles.
Van Gaal came with the reputation as some kind of super-coach. That was based partly on historical success, partly on his strong showing at the World Cup and partly on his self-proclamations of greatness.
He said he prefers to play with three at the back, yet he has been unable to make that work with United’s players.
In contrast, Brendan Rodgers switched to a back three when Liverpool’s season looked like going pear-shaped.
Despite less time on the training ground than Van Gaal because of their crowded fixture list due to cup commitments, he’s made it work effectively.
Van Gaal has barely had a midweek fixture all season. But despite all those extra training days, the players couldn’t get to grips with it.
Even with a more familiar 4-4-2, they still seem confused and nervous of making mistakes.
We’re talking top-rank international players here. Include Fellaini and Juan Mata, and United’s last seven signings average out at £30 million a piece.
Angel di Maria cost £60 million, but his initially impressive form has tailed off rapidly. In the last two games, he’s been substituted at half-time and on 59 minutes.
The £275,000-a-week gamble of Rademal Falcao hasn’t worked, but at least they can send him back to Monaco. United are stuck with the others.
We’re told that more money will be thrown at the situation again next summer. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the manager’s coaching skills.
Presumably, he’ll be given the 20-goal-a-season striker he complains he doesn’t have.
Unless you count Wayne Rooney, who averaged 21.7 goals over 10 seasons before Van Gaal started playing him in midfield.
Or Robin van Persie, who scored 48 in the two campaigns before his compatriot arrived.
Or Falcao who averages 25 a season in European football.
The latest chapter of a strange season at Old Trafford has seen unfounded suggestions that LVG and Ryan Giggs have fallen out.
Yet for all the perception that Van Gaal has not lived up to expectations, his situation is almost identical to that of his opposite number in the FA Cup quarter-final tomorrow, Arsene Wenger.
With progress in the Champions League now unlikely, the Frenchman’s remaining options are the same as the Dutchman’s a top-four finish and the FA Cup.
Van Gaal could deprive Wenger of both, just as Wenger could leave Van Gaal empty-handed.
If Wenger achieves his two targets, he will match last season’s accomplishments. If he misses one, it will be comparative failure. If he misses both, it will be a disaster.
Van Gaal will claim it a triumph if he wins a trophy and gets United back into the Champions League. Either would be tangible progress.
Critics have started calling him Lucky Louis. No matter how badly United play, the result always seems to go his way.
But even for a lucky General, fortune always runs out in the end. Then we’ll see how lucky Lucky Louis is.
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