Decisive Louis van Gaal getting ready to mould his Manchester United squad ahead of 2014/15 season

Louis van Gaal (R) has already shown he’s adjusted to handling the big job at Manchester United.

In the space of two consecutive summers, two Manchester United managers have ‘analysed’ their squad in preparation for the new season. The first manager was sacked in April and the new man appointed in July has already stamped his mark on the team during pre-season. But will he show he is more decisive than his predecessor?

History tells us that he will.

Louis van Gaal is mulling over the futures of some players in his squad after the tour to the USA where he gave them minutes on the playing field as he judges whether they fit his philosophy and also, his tactics for this new era for Manchester United. His tour on the USA proved ultimately successful on the pitch, winning the International Champions Cup with victories over LA Galaxy, Roma, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and finally, beating arch-rivals Liverpool 3-1 in the early hours of Tuesday morning to lift the trophy.

But the results were of secondary significance as the club’s fans, owners and players saw how the former Holland coach would set up his new team and most importantly, which players he perceived to be fitting into his thinking. It’s safe to say the majority can rest easy until the end of August. But for some (namely winger Nani, Shinji Kagawa and Javier Hernandez) the next few days will prove unsettling and nerve-wracking.

Unlike last summer when David Moyes took over from Sir Alex Ferguson and a pre-season tour to Asia heralded, in hindsight of course, the first signs that the reign under the former Everton manager might not end up as a success. Part of it was due to a new manager, naturally, assessing his squad and giving every player an opportunity. But Moyes never really seemed to make any decisive decisions on which players he wanted to keep and how he wanted to mould the squad in an image and style.

He had the chances to continue with the pre-existing targets identified by former manager Sir Alex Ferguson such as Barcelona’s midfielder Thiago Alcantara (who joined Bayern Munich), Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Herrera (a move in 2013 ended murkily but the midfielder joined United a year later). Moyes was not helped by the inefficient new chief executive Ed Woodward but the former clearly panicked on deadline day with a £27.5m move for Everton favourite Marouane Fellaini. A move that has seen Fellaini dubbed “the lampshade” by the Old Trafford faithful and a year on from joining, seems destined for the exit door with a move to Napoli rumoured.

Even the club record signing of Spanish playmaker Juan Mata from Chelsea during the January transfer window seemed a move shrouded in a lack of foresight. A fee of £37.1m was paid to the Blues but no real vision on how the new number eight would be implemented into a squad which already had Wayne Rooney, Kagawa and potentially Adnan Januzaj as players who could play behind the striker.

Mata was able to conjure up a respectable number of goals and assists considering he joined past he half-way stage of the season but it’s under Moyes’ replacement, van Gaal, that the playmaker seems to be given the permanent role of playing behind the two strikers.

The difference between the pre-season under Moyes and so far with Van Gaal is that the Manchester United fans never sensed Moyes would make big decisions or ones that would get them excited of what was to come. Van Gaal, in his short time at United, has made smaller decisions (the club training ground cafeteria tables going from rectangular to circlular; players eating together) and actioned the signings of Herrera from Athletic Bilbao and the £27m deal that brought Luke Shaw to Old Trafford from Southampton.

Even though there have been no developments in or out since the two signings, there is a burgeoning anticipation that Van Gaal will ship out Nani, Kagawa and Hernandez to bring in a midfielder and central defender of the highest quality. It is futile trying to discuss whether it will be Juventus’ Arturo Vidal, Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho or Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira, because transfer season – coupled with social media – always brings out-right fiction, half-truths or just ramblings to the table. But there does not seem to be as much doubt, unlike last summer, that there won’t be any deals done.

Nani (R) and Javier Hernandez (C) may head for the Old Trafford exit

The new manager’s career is littered with decisive decisions, most recently at the World Cup as he guided an inexperienced Holland side to the semi-finals. His club career, notably at Ajax where he believed in the talent of 16-year-old Clarence Seedorf shows he can see talented footballers quickly and integrate them into his thinking just as quickly and promptly. Unlike Moyes, you never get the feeling he will dither or wait a long time to decide on a player.

Van Gaal has, as expected, introduced a new formation for his players to adapt to which barring a few defensive scares during the US trip, wielded positive results individually for players such as Ashley Young, Rooney and Mata.

Despite the pre-season form, fans remain anxious on whether the much-maligned midfield of recent years will get the sufficient improvement that it will need and that depth will be brought in for defence to complement the young talent developing in players like Michael Keane, Tyler Blackett and Reece James. In hope rather than expectation, they will have to believe in Van Gaal’s previous history of developing young players that the likes of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Januzaj, Rafael Da Silva and Tom Cleverley (if he stays) find the consistency their game very badly needs to help ease concerns on the investment that United have paid for them.

Moyes’ reign ended up as a disaster for United. It is going into the territory of ‘what ifs’ to say what would have happened had he conducted his transfer business so assertively last summer but make no mistake, his replacement is delivering on a perception that he knows what he wants and if not, he will try to adapt (his favourite word so far it seems) to what he has.