Louis van Gaal must go now, and four other talking points from Manchester United's loss to Stoke

When everything is going this spectacularly wrong, how can Manchester United persist with Louis van Gaal? Seven games without a win in all competitions, four successive defeats and the latest indignity to be inflicted on United: a 2-0 loss away at Stoke in which they were utterly horrendous once again. There can be no extenuating circumstances for a collapse in performance and morale as dramatic as this. The manager takes ultimate responsibility and has to go. There is no other option.

It has been a troubling week for Van Gaal, maybe even amounting to an identity crisis for one of the most confident coaches in football. After last weekend suggesting he was no longer a great manager, Van Gaal was also said to have relaxed his strict training regime, allowing players to eat when they wanted and have more of a say in the structure of their day. Finally, for the first time on Saturday he dropped his captain Wayne Rooney. It was almost as though, with the noose being prepared, Van Gaal felt strangely liberated to try something different and re-evaluate all aspects of his management. If so, it collapsed spectacularly around him once again.

If Rooney had started the match there is no guarantee things would have panned out any differently – his terrible form this season suggests he has been more of a hindrance than a help. But still, the image of Van Gaal’s captain sat smiling on the bench before a must-win game set the Dutchman up for more ridicule. Dropping Rooney was the right decision, but it looked like the wrong one thanks to United’s catastrophic performance.

There was a strangely subdued atmosphere on the bench among Van Gaal’s coaching staff. Like senators quietly watching the Sack of Rome and their city erupt in flames in front of their eyes, they stoically surveyed the destruction as it unfolded. But this must be the moment when Van Gaal is put out of his misery. Nothing is working, everything is burning.

If you believe some of the papers, Van Gaal had two games to save his job prior to Boxing Day. But there is nothing to be gained in keeping him on for the game against Chelsea in two days.

There were very believable rumours that United had sacked Van Gaal just before Christmas. United fans had appeared to turn against him after the home defeat to Norwich and there was little in their turgid performances to suggest that Van Gaal was likely to turn things around. Jose Mourinho was also newly available, and even if not quite the right fit for United – his lack of interest in attacking tactics and bringing through young players is hardly commensurate with the club’s history – the former Chelsea boss was an attractive option in the club’s hour of need.

So why did the United board dither and keep Van Gaal in place? Despite all his arrogance, or perhaps because of it, Van Gaal is a very entertaining character to have in the Premier League and seeing him question his own mightiness last weekend was an undeniably sad glimpse into his personal turmoil. But United’s performances had descended to previously unimaginable levels. Champions League football is very much in the balance and Van Gaal’s insipid tactics are hastening the club’s decline. He should not have been in charge against Stoke – so the Glazers and Ed Woodward have to take their share of the blame too.

Sir Alex Ferguson used his final home game as Manchester United manager to announce to the world that Wayne Rooney had asked to leave the club for a second time. In what could prove to be his final match in charge, Van Gaal sent his own signal about the future of the United No. 10, if a rather more subtle one. Van Gaal dropped Rooney for the first time, a sacred cow being slayed. For a match which was absolutely crucial to his chances of holding onto his job, Van Gaal sat his captain on the bench for tactical reasons. That point cannot be emphasised enough.

It tells you everything about Rooney’s decline in recent seasons, culminating in his listless 2015-16 campaign. The striker admitted in an interview before Christmas that recent criticism of his performances had hurt him but losing his carefully-guarded first-team status will sting even more. Rooney’s half-time introduction hardly changed things. He drifted around on the periphery again. Just six months away from Euro 2016, Rooney’s durability and quality is increasingly a matter for forensic debate. Some have long argued he does not merit a place in his club's best XI - Van Gaal's team selection appeared to confirm it.

Okay, so Van Gaal technically still has a job and United certainly haven’t made any advances to other managers public, but the disastrous result at Stoke will surely have only hastened his departure. Giving the Potters an unwilling helping hand was Memphis Depay, whose dreadful defensive header allowed Glen Johnson to set up Bojan for the opening goal.

The Dutchman has already had his work rate questioned on multiple times this season and has been in and out of the team as a result. Boxing Day was the third time already this season that he has been taken off at half-time. But if Mourinho is the next man through the door, he could have his first-team chances limited even further. As Juan Mata found out to his cost, Mourinho wants his forwards to defend from the front, even Eden Hazard, and Memphis barely has the first clue how to do so. At the moment, he is a luxury player without the luxury and Mourinho is unlikely to indulge him.

Marko Arnautovic has long been compared to Zlatan Ibrahimovic for his frame, style and attitude. Indeed, only this month the Stoke striker told the press, “I copy many things" from the Paris Saint-Germain and Sweden superstar. The Austrian has so far done little to justify such comparisons on the pitch, but in recent weeks his performances have been getting hard to ignore. After scoring twice against Manchester City on December 5, he bagged a sensational strike against United too.

The way he flung his leg through the shot like a wrecking ball, sending it scorching into the net, was highly reminiscent of Ibrahimovic. At first glance it looked sure to have taken a deflection, but replays showed the vicious effort from 20 yards swerved violently in the air, such was the energy behind it. It was better than anything United could conjure on the day, and fitting of a place on Zlatan's showreel.