Stoke 2-0 Manchester United: The visitors are a brittle husk as Louis van Gaal mentions resignation

End game.

Many Man United fans remain steadfastly fond of Louis van Gaal the man, but they have near all given up on Van Gaal the manager. Sometimes the stars align in a bad way, and it is such at Old Trafford. That Saturday's damning 2-0 defeat was at Stoke City was apt. For so long the home side were characterised as functional, uninspired and muscular. Their modus operandi was to spoil and frustrate. Now the roles are reversed to a laughable extent. It is Stoke, not the famous Man United who play expansive, dynamic football; it is the Potters whose forward line is crammed with skilful match-winners. What are United now? Who are these players? A man who prides himself on his famous philosophy and steadfast teachings has fashioned a team bereft of confidence and bankrupt of ideas. It is all hollow. The result was painfully inevitable. The ninety minutes plus injury time a formality. The Dutchman's charges, lacking in quality, clueless in formation and broken in pride, were lame and waiting to be buried. It has got to the point where even the most giddy of supporters no longer take heed of the gossip columns because really, what does it matter? More expensive patches. More sealing the cracks of this husk. The time has probably come for sweet surrender to the inevitable. One suspects it will come as a relieve to everyone, not least Van Gaal himself, who even uttered to the R word to reporters after the game. https://twitter.com/DTguardian/status/680770524335763456 If he is to go - through either force or his own volition - it throws up two vital questions: who should replace him, and should the blame trickle upwards? Van Gaal at least elicits a level of affection through the misery; others - suits hiding in the shadows of their own failure - do not.