Mourinho and Van Gaal look into the abyss

Steve McClaren can be pleased with his Newcastle United side. Not because they were great, because they weren’t, but because they were emphatically not garbage. Against Crystal Palace last weekend they were clearly the worst team in the Premier League. Now, they might still be, but they weren’t the worst team this weekend, so there’s at least some slight improvement.

Giorginio Wijnaldum scored twice, or perhaps one and a half times given a handy deflection for the first goal, finally delivering on the promise he showed in the summer. The defence was far more impressive than it had been when conceding five at Selhurst Park, and to do so against a Liverpool side who had battered Southampton in the League Cup is something that many would expect was far beyond them in their match. They are now part of a relegation scrap, which is an improvement upon the campaign they had previously been on, that of a determined rush to relegation and transfer release clauses or relegation salary cuts. It might still all go to Holy Hell, but at least if they continue to apply themselves they won’t have to be ashamed of themselves when the payslip arrives every month.

As encouraging as it is for Newcastle, Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp can hardly be desperately disappointed. Only last week, they scored six times away from home, and Daniel Sturridge appears to be on his way to yet another comeback. They play with enthusiasm, which could not be said as Brendan Rodgers was on his way out. The defence, after all, is still made up of the same clowns that they had in September. It will take a while longer for Klopp to sort this out, but this game is no evidence that he cannot. Manchester United cannot persist with Van Gaal for much longer

Louis van Gaal and Manchester United exited the pitch with yet another failure, this time a goalless draw against West Ham. But there were two improvements which will surely be reverse as soon as Van Gaal is able to do so.

The defensive incompetence in the first half can be put down to the injury problems, Guillermo Varela and Paddy McNair are both inexperienced, and with Varela making his debut and McNair a central defender, it’s no surprise that both of them struggled in their own way, green to the Premier League and unsuited to the position, respectively.

For the first hour or so, it was much of the same for United, as they played conservatively but gave up dangerous chances to the opposition because of their lack of quality and ability to concentrate. For the remainder, though, there was something else. To describe it as better is too flattering a representation, but it was certainly less bad. That was because of two factors benefitting United at the same time.

Against West Ham, United started without Wayne Rooney. The last time they did that, at Watford, they were far better in attack, as all eleven players were capable of running and controlling the ball. The same was true in this game. The problem was that Van Gaal prohibits the side from taking any kind of risk, preferring to edge forward slowly with the ball, and thereby allowing the opposition plenty of time to organise. But when Marouane Fellaini was withdrawn from a creative position and United’s front four was full of vim, with the addition of Memphis, it looked like a goal was a matter of time.

The problem here is that this is already know, it’s just Van Gaal goes out of his way to choose the wrong player for the wrong position, and punishes them for attacking play. The solution was seen against West Ham, as it is briefly elsewhere, yet Van Gaal will almost certainly ignore the obvious for United’s crucial Champions League game against Wolfsburg.

For Van Gaal, though, things look settled. The dissatisfaction at the ground is now far more palpable with him than it was with David Moyes, and away from the support things are just as damning online. Where Moyes was seen as an out-of-his-depth incompetent, it seems understood that Van Gaal is getting his players to do more or less what he wants them to. It doesn’t work, and it should be resolved by Ed Woodward telling Van Gaal to change things on the pitch, or for Van Gaal to be the one who is changed. One Manchester United fanzine presence, Red Issue, has clearly had enough. It has also suggested that Rooney’s absence was not due to injury, but for different reasons. If Van Gaal’s judgement about his captain can be so flawed, there’s no reason to trust his judgement over anything else.

Chelsea throw away their good work

Jose Mourinho had been afforded the chance to get something of a run together. There’s still plenty of easy games coming in 2015, but Chelsea threw away another chance for a simple three points, this time against Bournemouth.

It’s not really the defeat that is the greatest problem, more the repeated absence of victory. Each game that brings no win is a game when the winning habit is postponed or aborted. In the past, Chelsea’s brilliant early-season starts under Mourinho have given them the confidence, and their opposition the fear, that allowed them to earn victories even when fatigued or depleted. Now, that is not the case. Bournemouth will have understood that attacking Chelsea was not a hopeless risk, but the sensible strategy, and so it ultimately proved.

There are clearly serious problems at Chelsea - this can no longer be discounted as a blip or a few players struggling with form - it is a lack of competence and application across the pitch, perhaps underpinned or exacerbated by a lack of serious investment, and also Mourinho’s pursuit of the broken Radamel Falcao. Chelsea failed to capitalise on their last three games, the last of which was a solid enough draw against Spurs at White Hart Lane. Mourinho, and others, would have anticipated that Bournemouth would settle for holding on for a point at Stamford Bridge, and that a home victory was likely. Instead, Bournemouth attacked when they were able and scored, albeit from an offside position.

Mourinho remains worthy of being given the chance to turn around the situation, but like Van Gaal at the end of last season, he is due a chance because not because there is definitely an improvement to come, but because it seems an impossible that an upturn won’t eventually materialise, because things are so woeful now. As Van Gaal has started to show, and perhaps as Mourinho did against Bournemouth, there’s no guarantee this will happen.