Time to deliver: Van Gaal must start winning matches

Louis van Gaal claimed before the Manchester derby that it will be "a long time" for local rival City to be regarded in the same elite class as clubs likeManchester United.

His reasoning was the history of the club, the number of supporters, the sustained record of winning trophies, the sheer level of expectation at Old Trafford.

In that context, it would not be right to give the Dutchman too much credit for a spirited final 20 minutes from a starting XI that cost 241 million pounds to put together.

There are signs of improvement under Van Gaal, that is for sure — as he likes to say — and few real conclusions can be drawn from the 1-0 defeat in Sunday's Manchester derby as the game was so distorted by the red card shown to Chris Smalling in the 38th minute.

Van Gaal praised the "unbelievable willpower" of his 10 men for their late rally in which they could have equalized, while his creative tactical ideas to take on City appeared effective when the match was 11 against 11. Daley Blind sat deep in midfield and dropped into the back four, Wayne Rooney roamed, Marouane Fellaini pushed forward toward Gael Clichy to get on the end of high balls.

On the back of the credible 1-1 draw against Chelsea, it was important that United at least made a game of the derby and was not embarrassed once it lost a man. The City of a year ago, rampaging all before it, would have expected to put four or five past them in the second-half.

But it would be a disservice to the ambitious Van Gaal to give him too much of a pat on the back. Yes, performances are improving, but at a club like United results have to follow. And fast.

Van Gaal is aware of that. He doesn't want to make excuses, he wants to win titles. The 63-year-old is being given time to implement his philosophy and integrate the £150 million of summer signings, but now he needs results.

United's power in Manchester has now been firmly wrested away, with City winning the last four league derbies. United, meanwhile, has made its worst start to a season since 1986-87, sitting 10th in the Premier League with just 13 points from 10 matches.

Even David Moyes made a better start to the campaign, at least in terms of points (17 from his first 10), and it is only in the context of last season's disaster that Van Gaal has been given so much rope by United supporters.

He might be thankful that he has escaped the same level of scrutiny as his predecessor but Van Gaal has major issues to work on, not least a defense that ended Sunday's match made up of two midfielders and two teenagers.