It’s safe to say that the last few weeks have been fairly miserable ones for all involved with Manchester United; their players, their supporters, and especially their under-fire manager.

Louis Van Gaal has been batting away criticism from all sides recently for both his team's style of play and (more recently), their poor results. Their 2-1 loss at Bournemouth on Saturday means they now lie fourth in the league, trailing the leaders Leicester City by six points, and with only three wins in 12 in all competitions. During that period they have also crashed out of both the League Cup and the Champions League, both in fairly shambolic and disastrous manner. So it would possibly be fair to say that there aren’t many positives on the horizon for the Old Trafford side, or their beleaguered manager, right?. However, I would suggest that it’s possible for United to turn the fact that they now have to compete in the Europa League into a positive, and to use the experience to their advantage.

For one thing, it may well represent United’s best chance of winning silverware this season. It’s hard to imagine them on this sort of domestic form putting a concerted title bid together, and of course having been knocked out of the League Cup already that only gives them the FA Cup for a chance of domestic glory. With the Old Trafford faithful constantly restless for silverware after gorging themselves on success under Sir Alex Ferguson, this may well represent a chance for Van Gaal to win back some credit with the supporters after taking a pounding on social media (and in the mainstream media) over the last few weeks.

What’s more, United are easily be one of the favourites for the competition. Them and Borussia Dortmund would appear to be the straightfoward frontrunners, with Liverpool, Valencia and Porto as other possible winners. However, when judged against the quality of the sides left in the Champions League there is comparison. United now have a much easier chance of winning a European trophy this season in this competition.

For much of this young and relatively inexperienced side this would be their first taste of winning trophies at a famous club, and would no doubt stand them in good stead for a renewed and better-prepared assault on the Premier League next season. Players like Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind, Ander Herrera and others have only played under Van Gaal and never experienced the trophy-glut of the last few seasons under Sir Alex. They would surely be markedly better players with the confidence of a major honour.

This then is a winnable trophy for United, who have a big enough squad to either play a different side in the Premier League and the Europa League or simply rotate their key players between competitions depending on which they take more seriously. Their new players would benefit hugely from the experience of winning silverware, and their fans would feel a whole lot better about the Van Gaal era if a couple of trophies were in the bag at the end of the season. With a squad big enough to cope with the rigours of two competitions and playing on Sundays, what are the down sides?

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