Louis van Gaal must be growing tired of press conferences. Like clockwork, every time he steps in front of the media a staunch defence of his Manchester United side follows.

– EPL TV rights: Sky and BT pay £5.1bn for live games
– EPL set to announce new record Dhs22bn TV rights deal

Yesterday saw the latest, as the Dutchman disseminated a preprepared pamphlet designed to highlight how Sam Allardyce was wrong to label them “long-ball United”.

Unlike in his rant after the FA Cup tie at Cambridge United, he at least had a point. It would have been impossible to finish the game against West Ham with 60 per cent possession had United blindly hoofed the ball forward for 90 minutes.

"Van Gaal would be better sacrificing one of Robin van Persie or Radamel Falcao – a pair whose lack of pace in also undermining the team at present"

However, while Van Gaal’s defence contained a kernel of truth, stats cannot be used to cloud the very obvious fact that the 20-times champions have lost their sparkle. 

That is not all the current coach’s fault, of course, and he could argue, with reason, that United’s leaky defence has been plugged.

Only four goals have been conceded in eight matches since the turn of the year, but by the same token just one of the four clean sheets collected in that run has come against top-flight opposition – and that was at struggling QPR.

Moreover, solidity has come for the rather hefty cost of attacking thrust, with Van Gaal’s midfield diamond robbing the team of any creative flow.

Michael Carrick and Daley Blind have both done what is expected of them, and more, in the holding role but ahead of them it has become an uninspiring mess.

Wayne Rooney has become the poster-boy for the malaise as he toils in an unfamiliar role. It is not that he has been a disaster in the middle of the park, on the contrary, he has three goals from 11 appearances in the position, and his stats against the Hammers compared favourably with opposite number Mark Noble.

But neither is he having the kind of impact that the captain of Manchester United would expect to have on the team’s fortunes. Considering Van Gaal has the likes of Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera kicking their heels on the bench, Rooney should be dominating games in the way that club legends such as Roy Keane or Bryan Robson did in the past.

Palpably he is not affecting matches from this deeper role, and his continued deployment there smacks of his Dutch coach trying to fit as many stellar names into his line-up as possible.

That has been evident over the past few weeks with Adnan Januzaj and Angel Di Maria, two exciting wingers in the Old Trafford tradition, being asked to play centrally.

The result is that the team’s width is provided by its full-backs, the unfortunate result being that they are heavily marked by the time United’s diagonal balls find them.

Van Gaal would be better sacrificing one of Robin van Persie or Radamel Falcao – a pair whose lack of pace in also undermining the team at present – and pushing Rooney into a No.10 role with Fellaini or Herrera playing deeper.

The latter’s lack of game time is becoming increasingly depressing, especially as he has shown glimpses of his potential to control games when he has emerged from the bench.

Van Gaal is not generally a man for turning, that much is clear, but if he wants to shake off Big Sam’s criticism then he must unshackle his team – starting against Burnley tonight.