Louis van Gaal’s stance on Manchester United’s solidity to be tested by Harry Kane and Tottenham

There are times when Louis van Gaal likes to congratulate himself for Manchester United’s defensive record. He has looked at the league table, seen the goals against column and concluded much is right.

Coming from a man of such intelligence and experience, it is a strangely simplistic form of analysis. Like United’s points tally, their record of allowing less than a goal a game on average owes much to David de Gea’s statistic-distorting brilliance.

Their greatest goalkeeper underlined the reliance on one of his successors. “I find it a bit difficult to comprehend that our goalkeeper is the best player we have in every game,” Peter Schmeichel said this week. “It shouldn’t be like that.”

Had the Spaniard been replaced by even an average top-flight goalkeeper, United would have had a minimum of six fewer points and potentially 12. Their defensive record may be rather worse than of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. They would almost certainly enter Sunday’s game against Tottenham Hotspur below their visitors.

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Instead, they go into it on the back of a defeat to Arsenal where, as Van Gaal rued, Danny Welbeck’s winner was gifted. Phil Jones made the misguided decision to chest down a punt forward and Antonio Valencia under-hit his back pass, selling De Gea short.

It was a snapshot of their problems. There was a lack of conviction, coherence and even competence. There have been structural failings and individual issues. An ersatz right-back floundered. A centre-back took the wrong decision.

United have had back threes and back fours this season. They have not established an understanding or a unit. Injuries and underachievement have contrived to hamper Van Gaal’s attempts to build a defence.

Marcos Rojo, a doubt for Sunday’s game, is the closest thing to a cornerstone, almost by default. He is left-footed, Van Gaal’s recruit, under contract for longer than his principal rivals and a regular when fit. The probability is that the Argentine will have a new partner in the summer, when a centre-back and a right-back will be on United’s agenda in the transfer market.

The supposed specialist on the flank, Rafael da Silva, scored a glorious goal against Tottenham’s Under 21s on Tuesday but has not started in the Premier League since October or featured in the division at all since an error-strewn outing at White Hart Lane in December. The ever-willing Valencia has deputised, but his outings in defence have been notable for his mistakes.

Yet if he is a makeshift, others were supposed to have mastered their trade by now. Jones, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling served their apprenticeships under Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. None still looks a suitable replacement for either half of United’s greatest centre-back partnership. Each is playing for his future. It seems a straight shootout.

All three are all out of contract in 2016. It is unlikely they will all be at Old Trafford next season, and United have been in no rush to give any new deals.

Evans’ decision to deny the FA charge of spitting at Papiss Cisse may have betrayed a desperation about his future. He was banned for six games, five of them against elite opponents. The chance to stake his case to stay is slipping away. At 27, the man Alex Ferguson once called “arguably the best defender in the country” can no longer bank on potential. The sight of Burnley’s Danny Ings running him and Smalling ragged suggested each has been overrated.

Perhaps Ferguson’s most bizarre prediction concerned Jones. The Scot declared he could become United’s greatest-ever player. A more realistic appraisal would be that, at 23, he is the best of the three injury-prone Brits. Smalling’s limitations on the ball and propensity for occasional awful performances should count against him.

But much as the immediate task is to repel Harry Kane and the Tottenham attack, the sense is that each is fighting a bigger battle: a rearguard action to save a United career that has promised more than it has delivered.

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