Statistically speaking, there is not much to distinguish Louis van Gaal from David Moyes at Manchester United. Their respective records to this point of the season are eerily similar.
Van Gaal’s United have 40 points from 22 matches in the Barclays Premier League. Moyes’s United had 37 points after the same number of games. Both teams each scored 36 goals in those 22 fixtures. Van Gaal has seven clean sheets to Moyes’s six. United have been poor away from home under Van Gaal (15 points from a possible 33) but much better at Old Trafford, where they have won eight of their 11 matches.
Conversely, United looked lost at home under Moyes, losing four of 11 games en route to mustering just 17 points, but were more adept on the road with six wins and two draws in 11. United went out at the first hurdle in the FA Cup under Moyes and did the same in the Capital One Cup under Van Gaal.
Even the criticism now being levelled at Van Gaal echoes some of the complaints directed at Moyes. Michael Owen suggested this week that his former club were “not functioning as a team”, which evoked the myriad comments about Moyes’s United being too one-dimensional, too leaden, too predictable. Under Moyes, the argument went that the reigning champions should never have fallen as far as they did. With Van Gaal, the case being advanced is that United should be performing a lot better for a team that had £150 million lavished on it in the summer.
