This season actually feels a lot like Van Gaal's first year at Bayern. They weren't blowing teams away by any means, just grinding every week and eking results out, relying on efficiency and moments of individual excellence in attack rather than cohesive offensive dominance, and being there or thereabouts at the business end of the league season. Their points total wasn't really impressive either - average of ~2 points per fixture, which mirrors United's mark, for a total of 70 points; which is rather pedestrian when compared with 80+ for Dortmund in 2012, and Heyneckes' 91 in 2013 with Bayern. Much of the same in the Champions League - finished 6 points behind Bordeaux of all teams in their group, scoring just 1.5 goals per match, barely scraped past Fiorentina and United; but almost clinched the treble and hit form at the right time.
This United team gives a similar kind of vibe. Not the most attractive team to watch, but defensively stout (much better than Van Gaal's Bayern to be fair), and slyly keeping pace with the front-runners for the league title. Once we build a bit of momentum as some of the starters return, the team could be difficult to stop provided there's no glut of injuries or tactical nightmare like against Arsenal. A lot depends on the others around us, and the teams are certainly stronger than their Bundesliga equivalents from 2010, but there's a sense that we're getting underrated by neutrals and United supporters alike because of the lack of flair, but it's in line with a couple of our most recent League titles where we did score more than this season, but were functional rather than aesthetically pleasing. Especially in 2011 where we had our fair share of really tedious wins and stale draws along the way to the title. Maybe this team can huff and puff its way to the summit again. Consistency will be key though.
