If only Club Brugge were in the Premier League. But they are not and, when you strip out the seven goals Manchester United scored in two games against them, they have scored just three in four this season. For all the talk of progress and of Louis van Gaal’s methods slowly being assimilated by his players, his 50th game in charge ended with the same result as his first: a 2-1 defeat to Swansea.

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In itself, perhaps, losing narrowly to Swansea this season is nothing too troubling: they are a very fine side playing very well with two goalscorers in form – which is two more than United have at the moment. More concerning is the ongoing sense of sterility, the lack of fluidity, the dearth of pace, penetration and creativity in the final third – and perhaps most worrying of all is Van Gaal’s insistence, again, that “we controlled the game, we played good”. Perhaps it will come, perhaps there will be that moment – which looked to have arrived last season when the 3-0 win over Tottenham was followed with three more wins in a row – when everything clicks and possession yields chances yields goals, but at the moment there is a familiar disjointedness about United.

The memory of Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick against Brugge may not last long. Twice at Swansea he found himself through on goal – the second time as a result of his own efforts in outmuscling Ashley Williams – and twice he dallied, allowing Williams back. Even Williams commented that he had expected Rooney to hit the second chance earlier. Perhaps it is a matter of confidence, although that would seem odd given how things went on Wednesday, but it may simply be that Rooney, having played deep for so long, no longer has the instinctive finishing drive that characterises the best forwards.

For Van Gaal, scoring goals, while obviously desirable, is not necessarily a part of the centre-forward’s role. At Ajax in the early 90s, for instance, he was quick to defend strikers such as Stefan Pettersson or Ronald de Boer against the charge that they did not score enough. “They were skilled at playing one-twos and creating space for their colleagues,” Henny Kormelink and Tjeu Seeverens wrote in The Coaching Philosophies of Louis van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches. “Because Ajax play in a small area of the field, the mobile midfielders and, in many cases, the defenders can cover the ground quickly to get in scoring positions.”

Rooney, though, was not even doing that. It is not necessarily his fault: he worked hard, he was constantly looking for space, but the service was not there. And there is always the thought with Rooney when he plays at centre-forward that he would be more effective deeper, foraging for the ball, snuffling for possession – as he was after Marouane Fellaini had come on for Ander Herrera. No outfielder had fewer touches in the first half (although his contribution to United’s goal suggested that touches are perhaps overrated, an ineffectual wag at Luke Shaw’s cross befuddling Williams, Lukasz Fabianski, and Neil Taylor to create space for Juan Mata).

It could hardly go unnoticed, either, that Swansea’s equaliser stemmed from an awful Rooney pass. It often seems that the greatest crime for Van Gaal is to concede possession, to the extent that his wide men often check back rather than taking on their full-backs. This, though, was far worse, a pass that was poor in conception and execution and that proved devastating because United, for once, had both full-backs committed up the pitch, as though lured forward by the space afforded them by Swansea’s switch to a diamond in midfield when they went one down.

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Shaw’s role in all three goals highlighted the shortcomings of the process. Just as United’s best move against Newcastle had come from a Shaw surge, so it was a forward charge from the full-back that broke the deadlock. There has been something measured and predictable about United in the league this season, an unwillingness to gamble, a feeling they are playing always on preordained tracks, but Shaw’s runs break the pattern, altering the angle of attack, adding a measure of verticality so the possession does not simply become a sequence of passes back and forth across the pitch.

The flip side, though, is the sort of space that appeared behind Shaw for both Swansea goals. This is one of football’s great internal struggles: creativity is the enemy of structure. Van Gaal is a manager who demands control and seeks to eliminate risk but it is almost impossible to attack without some measure of peril. Shaw may break the opposition lines with those forays, but they also break United’s lines and that balance is something Van Gaal must address. His side look predictable but the one deviation from the plan that seems to be permitted is what ended up costing his side.

Then again, with a sharper striker the process may look less in need of greater unpredictability.