Guardian Interview - Louis van Gaal: ‘I thought Manchester United could buy every player'

[tomaldinho1]

I probably should have been more clear. That summer, when United signed Ibra, Pogba and Mkhitaryan was a huge change for me. It was the first time post Fergie that the club signed top class players in positions they really needed. Mkhitaryan didn't work out in the end but he was the type of player the club really needed (fast, creative attacking player).

LVG had 2 seasons to build a squad, spent a fortune and it was shambolic. He went from the best group of 4 strikers in the league (RVP, Rooney, Chicharito and Welbeck) to a past it Rooney and 3 kids. This was at a time when the price of top class attackers was sky rocketing.

His signings in defence (Darmian and Rojo) and midfield (Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger) couldn't get in the team.

If he was given another season, I shudder to think what the team would have looked like.

Personally I think you could say the same for Di Maria, Falcao and Depay on your first point - with hindsight they were varying levels of terrible but all three were highly exciting and rated at the time. Di Maria remains a top drawer player to this day and the others are doing well in their current teams.

Generally transfers have been abysmal post Fergie so I don't think he's any different to Mourinho or Moyes in that regard, I fully support his deadwood clear out and there's no way RVP, Rooney, Welbeck and Chicarito were the best group of four strikers in the league. RVP was done, Rooney was done, Welbeck is average and Chicarito is ok. Chelsea had Costa (who alone is better than all four at that time), Drogba, Remy and Torres & City had Aguero (again, I'd rather him than all four), Dzeko, Jovetic and Bony.

I'm not saying we should have kept him on or that he was an amazing manager but, even though his football was like a shoddily made X-Men origins version of Pep's Barca, I still think he should be remembered in a better light than he seems to be on here.

 

[NinjaZombie]

There was no way Moyes could come into the club and sell Rooney.
That would have been way too major a move, as after all, let's not forget Rooney was actually one of the better players that season.

And yet, he gutted out the backroom squad and replaced them with his own men, who'd achieved feck all in their careers.

It was a difficult decision to make, but it was already made a tad easier by Fergie.

There were boos in Old Trafford when Rooney collected his medal in that last home game vs Swansea.

 

[berbatrick]

You have to take this with a pinch of salt, because he has always seemed like someone who shifts blame everywhere.
But his diagnosis of the 15/16 side - the lack of creative players - is correct, as is his comparison of City and Liverpool, and his comments about setting up that semi-high line are also interesting.

What makes me suspicious i his praise of Herrera - he bought Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin and played Rooney and Fellaini in midfield over Herrera in his second season. I think this is him taking credit for the player Herrera has been under Ole and sometimes under Jose, rather than what we saw him develop into under LvG.

Still, I think it would have been interesting to see Pogba in the 15/16 side, maybe with an added Lukaku or Zlatan. That team was the weakest we've had on paper since 2013, and what it needed was reliable finishing and creative passing. I have a feeling Pogba in particular could have translated a lot of the dull position and possession into chances. A solid defence, possession maintained by Blind, Carrick, Pogba, Mata, and forward runs and trickery from first-season Martial and Rashford.
Or maybe LvG would have neutered Pogba like he did Herrera

 

[Class of 63]

You've got to take a lot of what LvG says with a pinch of salt, after his time at Bayern some senior figures character assassinated him, did he defend himself, no, he said Bayern are a proper football club run by football people. Now he's saying what he thinks United fans want to hear but I wouldn't be surprised if the next time Ed and Louis meet up they'll laugh about most of his comments in the article in the op.

 

[berbatrick]

It also didn't help that we played a very defensive 5-3-2 for most the season with Rooney and Falcao up top, and wingbacks of Young and Darmian.

A midfield of an aging Carrick/Schweinsteiger/Fellaini or Schneiderlin with Herrera sat on the bench was also not great for creativity.

Only once we got Martial + Rashford into the team and switched to a 4-3-3 more regularly did we start to show anything half decent, but the damage was done by then.

It was an extremely strange season. We started badly and the 3-1 vs Liverpool, with Martial exploding over the next few games, pushed us forward. It was still mediocore stuff but we went to Leicester joint top, and an away draw kept us there.
Then came that wretched December, the worst United ever. Nothing improved in January. The slow improvement started with Rashford's debut (Martial had been producing something all throughout, even in December) and there were 2 more high points - the win against Arsenal with a youth team, and the controlled, professional, 1-0 at City. But the flaws had become very obvious in the limp EL defeat to Liverpool and the demolition at Spurs. The final day coffin-sealing defeat at West Ham was in fact quite like the Spurs game. Defensively vulnerable, couldn't handle the tempo.

 

[RC89]

It's funny he said he enjoyed England partly because there was always support for the manager (i.e. him). I remember a lot of discontent with LvG, even more so than Mourinho.

Maybe in the press, but for a long time the fans in the stadium atleast continued to be loyal for quite some time. I think this is entirely different to other experiences he might have had, for example in Spain.

To us, we turned on him. To him, we stayed loyal longer than he might have expected. That's my take anyway.

 

[RC89]

His recruitment is what really let him down. So I think that's a bad idea.

Indeed. And his marquee signings especially in Di Maria, Falcao, Schweini were particularly poor for us.

Schneiderlin and Darmian I think everyone thought they'd do well at the time but some just can't adjust well.

 

[Champagne Football]

I think the fact he's such a bizarre weird character makes him likeable, despite being a BS merchant as a manager.

The way he is behaving is like taking a massive dump on the floor of someone's kitchen, and then acting shocked and stunned afterwards that they have the nerve to be upset with you.

 

[Sandikan]

And yet, he gutted out the backroom squad and replaced them with his own men, who'd achieved feck all in their careers.

It was a difficult decision to make, but it was already made a tad easier by Fergie.

There were boos in Old Trafford when Rooney collected his medal in that last home game vs Swansea.

For all moyes faults, i always feel the back room staff thing is a little overplayed.
Every single manager ever keeps people he's comfortable with. Every single manager.

 

[Lennon7]

Maybe in the press, but for a long time the fans in the stadium atleast continued to be loyal for quite some time. I think this is entirely different to other experiences he might have had, for example in Spain.

To us, we turned on him. To him, we stayed loyal longer than he might have expected. That's my take anyway.

Nah, I remember for the first time in ages hearing consistent boos, even at half time after our umpteenth 0-0.

 

[stu_1992]

Good interview. Interesting insight without coming across as bitter. Sounds like he had some good ideas for how he wanted us to play and clearly he was aware of the limitations in the squad. Shame it didn't work out for him as he's clearly intelligent and he was a character, but the football really was dire at times. Boring more often than not. He had a poor record of signings too, even if he is alluding to the fact that's not entirely his fault here, he has to take some of the blame.

 

[edbe]

I think the fact he's such a bizarre weird character makes him likeable, despite being a BS merchant as a manager.

Odd character maybe, but a BS merchant he's certainly not:

Hoeness on Louis van Gaal
https://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/...ex-bayern-trainer-van-gaal-60607698.bild.html
"Louis van Gaal is technically one of the best coaches in the world. In my view, he is responsible for the fact that Bayern has fundamentally changed it's football. Ball possession, positional play - that he has initiated significantly".

Rooney on Louis van Gaal
http://www.sportbible.com/football/...a-lvg-was-a-better-coach-than-fergie-20190322
Wayne Rooney got to work with modern greats Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, as well as David Moyes, and he claims that there's one department Van Gaal is better than all of them.

“He was tactically the best I have worked with – in terms of setting you up in a shape defensively and everyone knowing their roles. It was just about getting the attacking side right as well as the defensive side. He won a few trophies but it didn’t pan out the way everyone would have hoped.”

Giggs on Louis van Gaal
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...gs-wales-manchester-united-van-gaal-interview
"Did the United hierarchy ever intimate to Giggs he would become the permanent manager? “No, it was more Louis [van Gaal] who said it. You know how Louis is. He told Ed Woodward [United’s executive vice-chairman]: ‘I will be manager for three years and then Ryan will take over.’ [Giggs laughs.] Typical Louis. No one else made me any promises. I didn’t think I was ready when I finished playing but, after working with Louis, I felt more than prepared. I know it didn’t work out for United but Louis was brilliant for me because he is a teacher.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...nt-to-be-a-manager-you-cant-stay-as-an-assis/
I have worked under three managers and also different national team managers [with Wales] and I can’t emphasise how much of an education it was working under Louis. OK, it did not work out in the end, but what he taught me in such a short period of time, the different ways he looks at the game."

Louis Enrique on Louis van Gaal
http://www.espn.com/soccer/barcelon...-of-barcelonas-best-ever-coaches-luis-enrique

"He's one of the best coaches we've ever had here [at Barca]. I learned a lot from him. He is a powerful character, but a great coach as well -- I'd say one of the best I ever worked under."
"When he came to the club he fitted in well with his idea of possession and associative play," the Barca coach added. "He's a very methodical man, very hard working and he had certain rules he was adamant he was going to stand by, whatever interpretations the players had of them.

"If I look at back at the two times he was here, there are some good memories and great anecdotes - I mean, his news conferences were legendary. He was an important person in my career, not just in terms of football but on a personal level, too. Behind that serious front he was a very sensitive man."

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Odd character maybe, but a BS merchant he's certainly not:

Hoeness on Louis van Gaal
https://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/...ex-bayern-trainer-van-gaal-60607698.bild.html
"Louis van Gaal is technically one of the best coaches in the world. In my view, he is responsible for the fact that Bayern has fundamentally changed it's football. Ball possession, positional play - that he has initiated significantly".

Rooney on Louis van Gaal
http://www.sportbible.com/football/...a-lvg-was-a-better-coach-than-fergie-20190322
Wayne Rooney got to work with modern greats Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, as well as David Moyes, and he claims that there's one department Van Gaal is better than all of them.

“He was tactically the best I have worked with – in terms of setting you up in a shape defensively and everyone knowing their roles. It was just about getting the attacking side right as well as the defensive side. He won a few trophies but it didn’t pan out the way everyone would have hoped.”

Giggs on Louis van Gaal
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...gs-wales-manchester-united-van-gaal-interview
"Did the United hierarchy ever intimate to Giggs he would become the permanent manager? “No, it was more Louis [van Gaal] who said it. You know how Louis is. He told Ed Woodward [United’s executive vice-chairman]: ‘I will be manager for three years and then Ryan will take over.’ [Giggs laughs.] Typical Louis. No one else made me any promises. I didn’t think I was ready when I finished playing but, after working with Louis, I felt more than prepared. I know it didn’t work out for United but Louis was brilliant for me because he is a teacher.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...nt-to-be-a-manager-you-cant-stay-as-an-assis/
I have worked under three managers and also different national team managers [with Wales] and I can’t emphasise how much of an education it was working under Louis. OK, it did not work out in the end, but what he taught me in such a short period of time, the different ways he looks at the game."

Louis Enrique on Louis van Gaal
http://www.espn.com/soccer/barcelon...-of-barcelonas-best-ever-coaches-luis-enrique

"He's one of the best coaches we've ever had here [at Barca]. I learned a lot from him. He is a powerful character, but a great coach as well -- I'd say one of the best I ever worked under."
"When he came to the club he fitted in well with his idea of possession and associative play," the Barca coach added. "He's a very methodical man, very hard working and he had certain rules he was adamant he was going to stand by, whatever interpretations the players had of them.

"If I look at back at the two times he was here, there are some good memories and great anecdotes - I mean, his news conferences were legendary. He was an important person in my career, not just in terms of football but on a personal level, too. Behind that serious front he was a very sensitive man."

He has a very poor understanding of the bigger pictures and how to adapt though. Also do not have a great eye for players and that is why his transfer record is so bloody poor.

He has a very rigid tactical possesion style which sometimes can work well and I do think he is good at teaching his players to play his style. Even in pre season we could see his influence on the way we playedSimilar to del Bosque and Benitez. It is quite dull, but can work with the right set of players. The problem is when he got the wrong types of players for his style he just keeps on going without adapting that style.

 

[jem]

He has a very poor understanding of the bigger pictures and how to adapt though. Also do not have a great eye for players and that is why his transfer record is so bloody poor.

He has a very rigid tactical possesion style which sometimes can work well and I do think he is good at teaching his players to play his style. Even in pre season we could see his influence on the way we playedSimilar to del Bosque and Benitez. It is quite dull, but can work with the right set of players. The problem is when he got the wrong types of players for his style he just keeps on going without adapting that style.

Genuine question: what was transfer record like pre-United. I seem to recall Ajax being mostly home-grown and him bringing a number of players with him to Barca. But outside of that, I have no clue.

 

[edbe]

He has a very poor understanding of the bigger pictures and how to adapt though. Also do not have a great eye for players and that is why his transfer record is so bloody poor.

He has a very rigid tactical possesion style which sometimes can work well and I do think he is good at teaching his players to play his style. Even in pre season we could see his influence on the way we playedSimilar to del Bosque and Benitez. It is quite dull, but can work with the right set of players. The problem is when he got the wrong types of players for his style he just keeps on going without adapting that style.

Not a great eye for players ?

You only have to look at the youngsters he brought into the first teams at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern to see it's actually the opposite.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Not a great eye for players ?

You only have to look at the youngsters he brought into the first teams at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern to see it's actually the opposite.

Or we could look at the players he signed/brought into the first team at Manchester United. Seeing as we’re more familiar with them.

 

[Gasolin]

I like the way he describes the defensive system due to the lack of qualities of the players in small spaces.
It just means that we also need people who can control the ball better and create in the midfield to supplement Pogba.

That could change the game for us.

 

[Chillosophy]

Bit of a dinosaur isnt he though?

 

[Majima]

Or we could look at the players he signed/brought into the first team at Manchester United. Seeing as we’re more familiar with them.

He actually wanted to bring in top-quality players like Lewandowski, Hummels, Muller, Robben. He has gone on record saying that, he thought we could bring in higher-profile players than he got.

He asked for more attackers, it doesn't mean he specifically wanted Di Maria & Depay. That's who he was given.

He bought in Schweinsteiger, big deal. It was actually going successfully until his injuries kicked in. We were top iirc. All managers bring in players they have worked with though. Mourinho bought in Matic & Lukaku. Does that mean he doesn't have an eye for players too? We see the same problems happening long after managers have gone. We don't set our managers up for success properly.

I enjoyed Van Gaal's time here a lot. Only manager since SAF where we were all on the same page and could actually see the progress being made on the pitch.

I wish he had a stronger team at his disposal at the time. He said it himself, he didn't have the quality of player necessary to attack properly. That's why were so conservative.

He over-achieved with the FA cup and achieved par in the league. Nothing but good things to say about Van Gaal's time here.

 

[Jazz]

Should have brought in a good technical director along with Louis. He needed help with the transfers. It's a pity really that we were/and still are so unprepared on the football side of things.

 

[Kush]

I enjoyed Van Gaal's time here a lot. Only manager since SAF where we were all on the same page and could actually see the progress being made on the pitch.

I wish he had a stronger team at his disposal at the time. He said it himself, he didn't have the quality of player necessary to attack properly. That's why were so conservative.

He over-achieved with the FA cup and achieved par in the league. Nothing but good things to say about Van Gaal's time here.

Can't believe people are writing this with a straight face

What progress? He went from 70 points in his first season to 66 points in the next where we scored 49 league goals which was just 1 more than fecking Sunderland. In Europe he couldn't get out of a group containing PSV, Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow! He did all of this while playing the most soul destroying football I've ever seen at United. van Gaal is incredibly lucky he was United manager at the time where Pep wasn't at City and Klopp hadn't assembled the squad he has now.

The man was a total fraud, he wasted £250m in 2 years here and gutted the squad to such extent that we had to play likes of McNair, Blackett and Donald Love in the PL. He can try and pretend now that Di Maria wasn't his signing but he literally name dropped him as a player who he wanted to buy.

 

[Majima]

Can't believe people are writing this with a straight face

What progress? He went from 70 points in his first season to 66 points in the next where we scored 49 league goals which was just 1 more than fecking Sunderland. In Europe he couldn't get out of a group containing PSV, Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow! He did all of this while playing the most soul destroying football I've ever seen at United. van Gaal is incredibly lucky he was United manager at the time where Pep wasn't at City and Klopp hadn't assembled the squad he has now.

The man was a total fraud, he wasted £250m in 2 years here and gutted the squad to such extent that we had to play likes of McNair, Blackett and Donald Love in the PL. He can try and pretend now that Di Maria wasn't his signing but he literally name dropped him as a player who he wanted to buy.

He had a team mostly containing average/past it players playing possession football. That is progress. It fell apart in the final 3rd because we had dismal creative attacking talent, but at least we we could see the progress being made on the pitch at the time. If Van Gaal was such a fraud, how come he managed to win the FA cup with a team that Mourinho gutted & wouldn't go near?

 

[2cents]

He actually wanted to bring in top-quality players like Lewandowski, Hummels, Muller, Robben. He has gone on record saying that, he thought we could bring in higher-profile players than he got.

He asked for more attackers, it doesn't mean he specifically wanted Di Maria & Depay. That's who he was given.

He bought in Schweinsteiger, big deal. It was actually going successfully until his injuries kicked in. We were top iirc. All managers bring in players they have worked with though. Mourinho bought in Matic & Lukaku. Does that mean he doesn't have an eye for players too? We see the same problems happening long after managers have gone. We don't set our managers up for success properly.

I enjoyed Van Gaal's time here a lot. Only manager since SAF where we were all on the same page and could actually see the progress being made on the pitch.

I wish he had a stronger team at his disposal at the time. He said it himself, he didn't have the quality of player necessary to attack properly. That's why were so conservative.

He over-achieved with the FA cup and achieved par in the league. Nothing but good things to say about Van Gaal's time here.

Bizarre reading this. I appreciate two aspects of LVG’s reign - it was the only post-Fergie period where I felt our manager had a clear vision in mind of how he intended to set up on the pitch, and I liked how he always attempted to dominate our top 6 rivals. And I liked the guy personally. But everything else was awful. The winter of 15/16 is right down there alongside post-Xmas Moyes, pre-sacking Mourinho and post-Paris Ole as our worst period of form since Fergie, and it probably beats them. And the only credit LVG built up was that short period in the Spring of 2015. Awful signings, awful in-game management (Powell for Mata?), and awful awful football.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He actually wanted to bring in top-quality players like Lewandowski, Hummels, Muller, Robben. He has gone on record saying that, he thought we could bring in higher-profile players than he got.

He asked for more attackers, it doesn't mean he specifically wanted Di Maria & Depay. That's who he was given.

He bought in Schweinsteiger, big deal. It was actually going successfully until his injuries kicked in. We were top iirc. All managers bring in players they have worked with though. Mourinho bought in Matic & Lukaku. Does that mean he doesn't have an eye for players too? We see the same problems happening long after managers have gone. We don't set our managers up for success properly.

I enjoyed Van Gaal's time here a lot. Only manager since SAF where we were all on the same page and could actually see the progress being made on the pitch.

I wish he had a stronger team at his disposal at the time. He said it himself, he didn't have the quality of player necessary to attack properly. That's why were so conservative.

He over-achieved with the FA cup and achieved par in the league. Nothing but good things to say about Van Gaal's time here.

Well I didn’t enjoy Van Gaal’s time at United. Worst football I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching at United, including recent shit shows under Moyes and Mourinho.

That wasn’t my point, though. Which was the self-evident fact that Van Gaal had a terrible record at United in terms of the players he signed and promoted from our underage ranks. The fact that - just two years after he left - Rashford and Shaw are the only players who are (arguably) good enough for the club that had their debut under Van Gaal tells us all we need to know about what a tremendous waste of time and money his time in charge was. And Shaw was a signing set in motion before he took the reins.

 

[JPRouve]

Genuine question: what was transfer record like pre-United. I seem to recall Ajax being mostly home-grown and him bringing a number of players with him to Barca. But outside of that, I have no clue.

You only need to know this, he brought Braafheid and Pranjic to Bayern and if you believe Hoeness he was against the purchase of Neuer. With Barcelona, he basically tried to bring as much dutch players as possible, players that he had already coached or personally knew. He is terrible when it comes to transfers.

 

[Kush]

He had a team mostly containing average/past it players playing possession football.

What? He binned most of those 'average/past it' players in his 2nd summer and then proceeded to do worse with the signings he made in Memphis, Schneiderlin, Darmian and Schweinsteiger. 3 of them already sold and one is utterly useless. This was very much HIS squad. I don't know why we are pretending these are not the signings he wanted or he was forced to work with these players.

That is progress.

Keeping possession and doing feck all with it is not progress ffs, you see more ideas on the pitch watching Bournemouth and they play with much worse players. Playing attacking football isn't necessairly restricted to requiring world class talent otherwise 99% of football sides in the world would play dull defensive football.

If Van Gaal was such a fraud, how come he won the FA cup with a team that Mourinho gutted & wouldn't go near?

I suggest you take a look at the teams we played enroute to that FA Cup Final. Sheffield, Derby, Shrewsbury, West Ham, Everton and Crystal Palace. Mourinho with van Gaals' squad and 4 signings won two trophies in his first season and made FA Cup final the next losing to a top team like Chelsea.

It fell apart in the final 3rd because we had dismal creative attacking talent, but at least we we could see the progress being made on the pitch at the time

And it is Van Gaals fault for assimilating that creative attacking talent in the first place, can you name one single player whose attacking game he improved during his time here?


It is pretty telling how said nothing about van Gaal having a worse 2nd season than first and getting dumped out in CL Group Stage and then in Europa League.

 

[Majima]

Bizarre reading this. I appreciate two aspects of LVG’s reign - it was the only post-Fergie period where I felt our manager had a clear vision in mind of how he intended to set up on the pitch, and I liked how he always attempted to dominate our top 6 rivals. And I liked the guy personally. But everything else was awful. The winter of 15/16 is right down there alongside post-Xmas Moyes, pre-sacking Mourinho and post-Paris Ole as our worst period of form since Fergie, and it probably beats them. And the only credit LVG built up was that short period in the Spring of 2015. Awful signings, awful in-game management (Powell for Mata?), and awful awful football.

That is my main point when i look back at Van Gaal's time here. No-one else has come close to that feeling personally. For that, i was grateful to his time here.

The 'awful football' was his means of adapting to his squad wasn't it? as he was hand-cuffed with the level of players at his disposal at the time. We had a terrible team individual quality wise. We built-up fine but attacking was a car-crash.

 

[Majima]

Well I didn’t enjoy Van Gaal’s time at United. Worst football I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching at United, including recent shit shows under Moyes and Mourinho.

That wasn’t my point, though. Which was the self-evident fact that Van Gaal had a terrible record at United in terms of the players he signed and promoted from our underage ranks. The fact that - just two years after he left - Rashford and Shaw are the only players who are (arguably) good enough for the club that had their debut under Van Gaal tells us all we need to know about what a tremendous waste of time and money his time in charge was. And Shaw was a signing set in motion before he took the reins.

Well that's where we differ. I would put Van Gaal above all of our managers since SAF. I valued the structure he bought to us at the time.

His signings were bad, but every manager's signings since him have been bad too. So I put the blame more at the structure behind the scenes than i do the individual managers.

You put Van Gaal's time in charge more a waste of money and resources than Mourinho's? At least Van Gaal left behind Rashford, Shaw & a team that could build up competently. What legacy has he left behind?

 

[Stacks]

He actually wanted to bring in top-quality players like Lewandowski, Hummels, Muller, Robben. He has gone on record saying that, he thought we could bring in higher-profile players than he got.

He asked for more attackers, it doesn't mean he specifically wanted Di Maria & Depay. That's who he was given.

He bought in Schweinsteiger, big deal. It was actually going successfully until his injuries kicked in. We were top iirc. All managers bring in players they have worked with though. Mourinho bought in Matic & Lukaku. Does that mean he doesn't have an eye for players too? We see the same problems happening long after managers have gone. We don't set our managers up for success properly.

I enjoyed Van Gaal's time here a lot. Only manager since SAF where we were all on the same page and could actually see the progress being made on the pitch.

I wish he had a stronger team at his disposal at the time. He said it himself, he didn't have the quality of player necessary to attack properly. That's why were so conservative.

He over-achieved with the FA cup and achieved par in the league. Nothing but good things to say about Van Gaal's time here.

He says Di Maria was one of many on his list. I would imagine Depay was too as he is Dutch and coached by him before. The gist is that he thought United could attract more and better talent then it did. He probs expected Zlatan, Thiago Silva, Iniesta etc

 

[Majima]

What? He binned most of those 'average/past it' players in his 2nd summer and then proceeded to do worse with the signings he made in Memphis, Schneiderlin, Darmian and Schweinsteiger. 3 of them already sold and one is utterly useless. This was very much HIS squad. I don't know why we are pretending these are not the signings he wanted or he was forced to work with these players.

He deserves blame for getting rid of Nani, Chicharito & a few others. They could have definitely been useful to us. But the team wasn't the best to begin with, it needed a lot of investment.

Keeping possession and doing feck all with it is not progress ffs, you see more ideas on the pitch watching Bournemouth and they play with much worse players.

Getting us to build up to begin with was an achievement with that team. Why do you not value 'keeping possession'?

Playing attacking football isn't necessarily restricted to requiring world class talent otherwise 99% of football sides in the world would play dull defensive football.

It's not as simple as that though. He tried to open up at the start and we got embarrassed by Leicester away. At the top level, of course you need talented attacking talents. Who did we have? Young kids and over the hill players. No way was that enough.

And it is Van Gaals fault for assimilating that creative attacking talent in the first place

True, I agree. But since the season had started, what could he do? He was hand-cuffed.

can you name one single player whose attacking game he improved during his time here?

Yes. Rashford was much more dangerous under him. Martial was on another level. They were developing very nicely under him, playing together in their preferred positions.

Shaw improved. Before the leg break, he was developing well. He was attacking with confidence.

The young players were full of confidence under him. Martial & Rashford wouldn't have stagnated if they were under him.

He was the only manager to use Mata well. Remember Liverpool away?

Blind was very good. Had Lukaku in his pocket and built up the game for us at the back.

It is pretty telling how said nothing about van Gaal having a worse 2nd season than first and getting dumped out in CL Group Stage and then in Europa League.

The 2nd season was strange. After the impressive ending to the season having success with the 4-1-4-1 beating the top 6. I was expecting him to build upon that, but he scrapped it for some reason and it went down-hill after that.

 

[Moriarty]

I liked old Iron Bollocks. My abiding memories of him are his look of utter disbelief at MK Dons, ditto Leicester, and the genuinely baffled expression he wore as Di Maria trotted off at Turf Moor to be substituted.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Well that's where we differ. I would put Van Gaal above all of our managers since SAF. I valued the structure he bought to us at the time.

His signings were bad, but every manager's signings since him have been bad too. So I put the blame more at the structure behind the scenes than i do the individual managers.

You put Van Gaal's time in charge more a waste of money and resources than Mourinho's? At least Van Gaal left behind Rashford, Shaw & a team that could build up competently. What legacy has he left behind?

Well he spent a bit less money than Mourinho. He still spent a lot of money though. So as excuses go, it’s not a very good one.

I also disagree with your idea that he was the only manager with a recognisable idea of how he wanted the team to play. Mourinho had his compact defensive shape/counter-attacking football and Moyes had his death by a thousand crosses. All three of them brought their own ideas to the club. Just a pity they were all woefully outdated and out of touch with the type of football played by the best managers around nowadays.

 

[Majima]

He says Di Maria was one of many on his list. I would imagine Depay was too as he is Dutch and coached by him before. The gist is that he thought United could attract more and better talent then it did. He probs expected Zlatan, Thiago Silva, Iniesta etc

He has a point though, we've been having underwhelming summers ever since the Glazers came here, but expect miracles from the managers.

I imagine he was extremely shocked at the state of the club behind the scenes.

 

[Majima]

Well he spent a bit less money than Mourinho. He still spent a lot of money though. So as excuses go, it’s not a very good one.

I also disagree with your idea that he was the only manager with a recognisable idea of how he wanted the team to play. Mourinho had his compact defensive shape/counter-attacking football and Moyes had his death by a thousand crosses. All three of them brought their own ideas to the club. Just a pity they were all woefully outdated and out of touch with the type of football played by the best managers around nowadays.

I don't think Van Gaal & Mourinho were out of touch as such. Just didn't work out for whatever reason. The one thing I regret is that, we never got to see Van Gaal & Mourinho's ideal football. Both of them had the rug pulled from underneath them. Some self-inflicted sure, but mostly down to incompetent structures above them.

 

[Majima]

I liked old Iron Bollocks. My abiding memories of him are his look of utter disbelief at MK Dons, ditto Leicester, and the genuinely baffled expression he wore as Di Maria trotted off at Turf Moor to be substituted.

How can you forget the drop to the floor protest to Arsenal's diving. He took no prisoners, that's for sure.

 

[Tincanalley]

One thing is how good or otherwise was LVG. The other byeline is what his testimony (added to hints from others) tells us about behind the scenes at MU. The latter is by far the most relevant to today, and arguably the most interesting story. It should worry every United fan.

 

[davidmichael]

These days LVG only stays relevant when slating United, he’s like the old boring wife that was cast aside and spends their time complaining about everything from that period in time.

 

[hn4manunited]

Interesting insight. His admission of Rooney being over the hill is a surprising one. Everyone knew it but the 'my captain shall always play' mantra really made it seem as though he had a blind spot with him.

Well, him saying Rooney was over the hill and then said he was still his best player while he was there just shows you the state of our squad at the time.

 

[edbe]

You only need to know this, he brought Braafheid and Pranjic to Bayern and if you believe Hoeness he was against the purchase of Neuer.

You forgot Robben, Muller, Badstuber, Mario Gomez and Alaba. And by the way also good to know: he reached the CL final with Bayern with his terrible purchases and youngsters.

With Barcelona, he basically tried to bring as much dutch players as possible, players that he had already coached or personally knew. He is terrible when it comes to transfers.

At Barcelona: Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol.

Speaking of terrible, Ajax in 1995/1996/1997 was really terrible. Best in the world actually.

Some Dutch tend to be good, Kluivert, F. de Boer, Reiziger were all WC players that played one or two CL finals.

I've heard Van Nistelrooy was pretty decent at well at United, Van Persie, Stam and Vd Sar were ok as well I guess. Meulensteen was a decent staff member under SAF.

Seems Ferguson wanted just Dutch as well if he could get them.

Even Depay is a great player, not that anybody in England seems to know. Because they do not seem to have a clue what happens across the channel.

I've even heard most United fans now want a certain Dutch player in their team. Please dont, he's pretty terrible, just like the rest of them.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

He has a point though, we've been having underwhelming summers ever since the Glazers came here, but expect miracles from the managers.

I imagine he was extremely shocked at the state of the club behind the scenes.

Yeah Woodward probably didn't help him enough and our lack of structure either. Although I still think he wanted most of the players he ended up getting. I say Martial and Falcao as last second punts might have been players he didn't consider at the start, but did buy since we played so poorly in attack in our first 3-4 games before the window closed so he did want to bring in another attack to magically solve our dull style that he coached. I think he probably wanted a better player than Blind too, but went for him when he couldn't get the world class defenders/midfielders he wanted.