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Louis van Gaal’s gamble to leave Wayne Rooney on the bench backfired in spectacular fashion yesterday as another poor apology of a Manchester United performance saw them deservedly beaten 2-0 at Stoke City.
It was United’s fourth defeat in a row – the worst run since 1990 when Sir Alex Ferguson was fighting for his job.
Goals by Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic in the opening half-hour killed any hopes United had of winning their first match in seven.
Rooney sat despondently in the dugout behind assistant manager Ryan Giggs, and was unable to change the game after being sent on at half-time for Memphis Depay, whose blunder set up the opening goal.
All eyes will now be on if van Gaal survives until Monday’s game against Chelsea.
Certainly the United manager is running out of people to blame and it was maybe not a good sign for him that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward wasn’t at the Britannia to support him.
The away support at Stoke defiantly gave the team their backing as they trudged off and van Gaal waved to them.
A goodbye or not, we will have to see.
Following his Press conference walk-out on Wednesday, the United boss took another big decision by leaving Rooney on the bench.
Despite his poor current form, it was still a shock to see the captain not starting such a crucial game.
Both van Gaal and replacement skipper Michael Carrick had their serious game faces on as the teams walked out at the Britannia Stadium, but there was no disguising United were distinctly second-best in the opening 45 minutes.
Stoke started brightest, and it came as no suprise when they took the lead.
It was due to a major gaffe from Depay, arguably the worst signing of van Gaal’s reign.
The £25million Dutchman tracked an overlapping run from the Stoke right back Glen Johnson but failed to take into account a firm wind blowing away from United’s goal.
Depay totally misjudged a diving header back to David de Gea and Johnson was able to overtake him easily and square a pass to Bojan, who finished low into the net despite despairing lunges from Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.
Stoke fans celebrated the goal and then quickly broke into a chant of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” as van Gaal and Giggs looked even more stony-faced.
Apart from a few cursory words to each other over the course of the afternoon, they resembled a couple of commuters stuck together on the daily ride.
The scoreline became 2-0 after 26 minutes. Bojan’s free-kick bounced out of the wall to Arnautovic, who displayed outstanding technique to strike a shot past 25 yards that arched away from de Gea and into the corner.
Van Gaal is the huge odds-on favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job.
Leading bookmakers Ladbrokes priced van Gaal at a huge 1/12 to be the next Premiership boss out of job.
Irish bookies Paddy Power went one step further and already paid out on van Gaal being axed next.
Jose Mourinho is the front-runner to replace van Gaal.
Mourinho, who was sacked by Chelsea earlier this month, is the bookmakers’ favourite at just 4/7 with SkyBet.
Closely following Mourinho on the polls are Ryan Giggs (2/1), Pep Guardiola (6/1), Antonio Conte (28/1), Gary Neville (28/1), Manuel Pellegrini (33/1) and Mark Hughes (33/1). – Daily Mail/Express
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