Manchester United vs Norwich match report: Louis van Gaal on the brink as fans turn on manager following defeat

Manchester United 1 Norwich 2

(2015 Manchester United FC)

If Jose Mourinho lost Chelsea’s players, then Louis van Gaal has lost Manchester United’s own television station. As MUTV debated the latest stumbling, incoherent expression of what their manager calls his “philosophy”, Gordon McQueen exclaimed: “What you have to remember is that this club has spent a quarter of a billion pounds on players and somebody should be answerable for that.”

McQueen played for Manchester United under Dave Sexton, like Van Gaal a deep-thinking manager who had a distinct football philosophy that nobody at Old Trafford could fathom. He was fired after winning his final seven games because the football had become so achingly dull and the crowds were deserting England’s best-supported club. The game against Norwich was said to be the easiest of the season to get a ticket for. There would be no Christmas bonus for the touts.

This season’s Manchester United have been accused of sterility now they are no longer just boring. They are a mess. With a fixture at Stoke and against a Chelsea side rejuvenated by the excising of the poison of Mourinho it could be an uncomfortable and terminal Christmas, although Van Gaal thought the club would gain nothing by removing him now.

Cameron Jerome scores the opener for Norwich (2015 Manchester United FC)

“Of course, I am worried about my job because I know that belief in a manager is very important,” he said. “When you lose, that belief shall decrease and that is happening now. I cannot close my eyes to that. I don’t think a change in management shall bring direct success but what I believe does not matter.”

Van Gaal usually talks at length to his players after a match but in the home dressing room at Old Trafford, he admitted that it had been very hard to think of anything to say. He resembles no one so much as the Wizard of Oz, a magician without magic. Frankly the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion would make a more effective forward line than the one that laboured to gain control of the game after Norwich had gone two goals up.

This was Wayne Rooney’s 500th match for Manchester United. He marked his first with a hat-trick against Fenerbahce that seemed a portent for one of the great careers. Then he was in a team with its share of mediocrities. Eric Djemba-Djemba, David Bellion and Kleberson were among those who congratulated him on his first goal.

There are mediocrities around him now and though Manchester United’s captain tried desperately hard, sending an overhead kick into the Stretford End, his magic, like his manager’s, is fading.

He did have a part in United’s goal which gave them hope something could be salvaged from the wreckage. He flicked on a cross from Ashley Young into Anthony Martial’s midriff. The young Frenchman took the ball down and, in very limited space, took it past Robbie Brady’s outstretched leg, turned Ryan Bennett’s challenge, and drove his shot home.

Alexander Tetty pokes the ball home to score the second (2015 Getty Images)

With 90 seconds of stoppage time remaining there was one chance for United to deny Norwich the victory the grit of their defensive work had deserved. A long through ball found Chris Smalling, of all people, stooping to head it and he missed by inches. During Sir Alex Ferguson’s rule, it would have gone in but that kind of luck no longer belongs to Manchester United.

Van Gaal could not have handpicked better opponents than Norwich City, who had not won at Old Trafford since 1989 and who had won only one of their last 11 fixtures. For the opening half-hour, as Manchester United drove and pressed, they floundered in their own half, seeming for all the world like a team from another division. Once they scored, Norwich became a very different team.

Even those who want Van Gaal packed off to his holiday home in the Algarve to spend more time with his golf clubs would admit that it was against the flow of play but it was supremely well taken. As the ball broke to Cameron Jerome, he delayed his shot with Michael Carrick behind him and Smalling sliding across to make the tackle, just long enough to pick his spot. David De Gea got a glove to the ball but nothing more. Those who had made the journey from Norfolk began a chorus, directed at Van Gaal, of: “Jose Mourinho, he’s getting your job.”

Jerome created the second goal by forcing his way through the middle after Rooney had lost possession, and producing a lovely, switched pass to set up Alexander Tettey who toe-poked his shot past De Gea.

The Stretford End tried in vain to rouse their players with a chorus of: “We are the pride of Europe, the cock of the North.” It is an old song that is now part of the lost language of Manchester United.

Louis van Gaal watches Manchester United's 2-1 defeat by Norwich (Getty Images)

Manchester United: (4-2-3-1) De Gea; Young, Jones, Smalling, Blind; Carrick, Fellaini (Herrera, 60); Martial, Mata, Depay; Rooney.

Norwich City: (4-2-3-1) Rudd; Bennett, Martin, Bassong, Olsson; Tettey, O’Neil; Redmond, Hoolahan (Howson, 66), Brady; Jerome (Mbokani, 81).

Referee: Michael Oliver

Man of the match: Jerome (Norwich)

Match rating: 8/10