Louis van Gaal’s team selection offered reason for positivity – it was an unchanged side from the XI which defeated Aston Villa on Friday. At roughly this point last season Van Gaal was chopping and changing players, switching formation regularly and attempting to introduce multiple new signings simultaneously. Now the Dutchman has a plan, and is sticking to it.

Last season’s 4-3-3 has given way to a 4-2-3-1, which essentially allows Van Gaal to field another technical attacking player. Last season Marouane Fellaini was charging forward from midfield to offer a more direct route of attack. Now, with Juan Mata, Adnan Januzaj and the exhilarating Memphis Depay buzzing around between the lines, this is a much more stylish side.

Van Gaal’s teams usually play with great width, but here Mata typically drifted from the right flank to create from central positions, while Depay cut inside dangerously in possession, shooting from his right foot from inside-left positions.

He scored two superb goals from that zone, and probably should have had another – evoking memories of Cristiano Ronaldo in his latter days at Old Trafford in that No7 shirt. In the centre, meanwhile, Januzaj made clever movements into the wider zones he is more comfortable in, creating space and causing Club Brugge’s holding midfielder, Timmy Simons, no end of problems.

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Simons, the club captain, was overawed in that position. A hugely impressive midfielder during his peak years, the 38-year-old does not regularly face opponents of this calibre in the Belgian league. He attempted to track Januzaj in the early stages, and sometimes dropped deep to become an extra centre-back, guarding against movement from United’s attacking players in behind the centre-forward Wayne Rooney.

Simons was simply unable to cope with two, and sometimes three, players in his zone, however. His midfield colleagues Víctor Vázquez and Ruud Vormer were concentrating more on the deeper midfielders Michael Carrick and Morgan Schneiderlin and unable to help, and it was surprising Club Brugge’s full-backs didn’t tuck inside more against two opponents taking up narrow positions - United simply had too much space in the attacking third. Simons limped off before half-time with a hamstring pull, which, for the Belgian side, was probably for the best.

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The role of Rooney still remains a concern. There is no reason he should not be able to play as an outright centre-forward at this stage of his career, although it’s a huge change from last season when Van Gaal regularly deployed him in midfield – perhaps he simply needs time to adjust. One brilliant, volleyed backheel created a chance for Depay’s hat-trick, his brightest moment of the season so far.

Still, it’s unclear precisely how he is meant to play in this system: he can’t be a penalty-box poacher as he was in this position throughout the 2009‑10 season, because United’s are not playing with natural crossers on the flanks, and there is no great sense in him playing as a false No9, because United have plenty of players drifting between the lines anyway, and therefore he might be better playing on the shoulder of the last defender, waiting for intricate through-balls. It remains to be seen whether he still boasts the pace to play in that manner, however.

This, of course, is why Van Gaal is still determined to sign Barcelona’s Pedro, a player who has built a career out of well-timed runs in behind the opposition defence. That will add another dimension to United’s game, and create another passing option for his compatriot Mata.