Capital One Cup: Manchester United knocked out after 4-0 defeat at MK Dons

In less than 50 days, Louis van Gaal has completed the bruising tumble from a World Cup semi-final in the concrete jungle of Sao Paulo to a public humiliation amid the concrete cows of Milton Keynes.

It is what Andre Villas-Boas might call a ‘negative spiral’. On a day when Manchester United spirits ought to have been lifted by the arrival of Angel di Maria for a British record transfer fee, they instead went crashing out of the Capital One Cup.

The performance was feeble and the result was perhaps United’s worst since York City won at Old Trafford in this competition, nearly 20 years ago.

 

Van Gaal’s first campaign is unravelling at breathtaking speed, although he made every effort to suggest he was unaffected — even unsurprised — by the pummelling.