Louis Van Gaal | 2015-16 Performance Thread

Van Gaal: The verdict

  • 1) Sack him now.

  • 2) Sack him at the end of the season.

  • 3) Let him see out his contract and part ways after that.

  • 4) Extend his contract.

  • Undecided (between 1 and 2).

  • Undecided (between 2 and 3).

  • Undecided (between 3 and 4, if things improve before his contract expires, extend).


Results are only viewable after voting.

SirFergie

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Wasn't convinced by him last season and so far he has done little to change my mind on that. Looks like he hasn't learned at all from last years mistakes, even if he has bought well so far. By selling Di Maria it certainly doesn't help in the creativity department that we suffer from already.

Question marks hang over a number of things and it is a major concern:

- The GK situation, it needs sorted ASAP as De Gea clearly isn't motivated and that will hamper us during the season
- The CB situation. We DESPERATELY need a good solid CB. Persevering with Jones \ Smalling \ Rojo \ Evans \ Blind will not win the league, mark my words
- Herrera. It's beyond me that he still doesn't regard him as one of the first names on the team sheet.
- Lack of creativity. We struggle to break teams down and that looks set to continue, Selling Di Maria doesn't help.
- Rooney \ Striker position. Lack of options and having Rooney (arguably past his peak) as the main striker, could be a recipe for disaster.
Stop with this. We had trouble with Di Maria so just stop with this shit.

Funny how now he's the greatest thing since sliced bread now he's close to moving. He was a genuine waste of space apart from 4 games at the beginning of the season.
 

DomesticTadpole

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He's confirmed that Blind will be the LCB, and he's yet to decide who the RCB will be. Also said Shaw and Darmian will be the full backs
He's going to be the death of us isn't he? First he said he had RCB but wanted an experience LCB. Now Daley Blind is our long awaited saviour. :lol::nervous:
 

MDFC Manager

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He's going to be the death of us isn't he? First he said he had RCB but wanted an experience LCB. Now Daley Blind is our long awaited saviour. :lol::nervous:
That's the thing. For all our riches and supposed transfer muscle, surely our first choice LCB shouldn't be Blind? I'd take Evans over him there.

The saving grace is that perhaps Rojo will eventually come into the picture there.
 

Nighteyes

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That's the thing. For all our riches and supposed transfer muscle, surely our first choice LCB shouldn't be Blind? I'd take Evans over him there.

The saving grace is that perhaps Rojo will eventually come into the picture there.
Not sure that's a saving grace. It's like being a given choice of being burnt to death or drowning.
 

Cassidy

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If Blind starts CB vs Spurs (which looks likely) then I'll be dumb founded tbh.
He surely, after last season, can see the huge importance of a good start, IMO Blind at CB is an experiement too far.
 

JoaquinJoaquin

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Stop with this. We had trouble with Di Maria so just stop with this shit.

Funny how now he's the greatest thing since sliced bread now he's close to moving. He was a genuine waste of space apart from 4 games at the beginning of the season.
Maybe he didn't play aswell as he should of, but that doesn't mean we wont miss the creative element he brings should he be sold.
 

m1y2

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Being sacked in your last campaign, well who wants it?

Get a grip Luis. Stick to what made you famous and stop experimenting.

We are quite unconvincing despite being claimed otherwise by manager.. going to play Blind against Kane ffs.
 

bosnian_red

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Maybe he didn't play aswell as he should of, but that doesn't mean we wont miss the creative element he brings should he be sold.
He didn't bring much of it last season so we won't really miss it. He could potentially bring it of course, but the point is by selling him we aren't really losing anything based on last season, we're just losing what we could have potentially had.
 

Kevin

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After the PSG game:
''I think I shall play [Luke] Shaw with [Matteo] Darmian, and with Daley Blind. The right central position I have to consider. I am very pleased with the performance of Matteo Darmian, and you can see he can play on the right and left.''
Blind will start at LCB. Could prove a golden nugget of a decsion if it comes off.
 

United22

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I've had enough of this guys bullshit if I don't see him starting with Smalling and Herrera. He tries to be way too smart for his own good and inevitably fecks things up. With the amount of money we have spent we better be challenging for the title next year, or having this guy here for a 3rd year is fecking pointless
 

Boycott

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All those saying "Rojo will be back".

Van Gaal's method of having players play in the U21s, a few unused sub appearances and then a cameo or two before you can even be considered as a starter means we won't see him until September at the least.
 

Trizy

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For such a good manager he really misses the obvious, for example last season he was playing players out of position (Rooney in MF) and starting with a non-working 3 at the back. Now he's started messing with players positions and leaving the better players out. I'd love to know what's going on in his head.
 

Question234

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Stop with this. We had trouble with Di Maria so just stop with this shit.

Funny how now he's the greatest thing since sliced bread now he's close to moving. He was a genuine waste of space apart from 4 games at the beginning of the season.
His overall play wasn't the best but di maria got the highest assists and chances created for us last year.

Him going doesn't make us better.
 

SirFergie

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His overall play wasn't the best but di maria got the highest assists and chances created for us last year.

Him going doesn't make us better.
Nor does it make us worse. We produced our best football last season, as a team, without him anywhere near the first 11. He's replaceable and we'll move on, the only thing damaged is our pride at possibly being taken for mugs.
 

DomesticTadpole

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All those saying "Rojo will be back".

Van Gaal's method of having players play in the U21s, a few unused sub appearances and then a cameo or two before you can even be considered as a starter means we won't see him until September at the least.
Rojo won't be ready for the Spurs game.
 

BringNaniBack

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He makes some really strange decisions. Can he not over complicate things for once and play our best players in their best positions. If you must play the same front 4 then swap Memphis and Mata around. Play Smalling at CB and play Herrera in midfield. Do this and the team will be 10 times better. Its crazy that 90% of fans can see it but the manager cant. It seriously must be some genetic fault in the brain that makes managers miss certain things but also makes them as stubborn as a brick wall and makes them believe in there decisions 100% which has probably gotten them to position they are at as a manager today.

I just hope he changes things for the start of the season.
 

Minimalist

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What position is Van Gaal playing? Is his touch any better than that of Rooney?
 

Oneunited26

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For such a good manager he really misses the obvious, for example last season he was playing players out of position (Rooney in MF) and starting with a non-working 3 at the back. Now he's started messing with players positions and leaving the better players out. I'd love to know what's going on in his head.
He could be missing some huge tricks, playing some of our most immobile players in carrick, mata, blind, playing average garbage in young instead of herrera, playing bastian and carrick together when you do not need to be both playing, benching herrera and morgan, playing depay central when he could offer us far more from the right or left. We have the tools to challenge for the title, its a worry he is playing the wrong players, and handicapping the team by playing too many immobile players.

If he started with carrick, herrera and morgan, in a 3 man midfield, we would see more fluency, if he tends on setting us up like this

DDG
Darmien, smallling, blind, shaw
carrick, bastian
mata, depay, young
rooney

When the team should be
DDG
Darmian, smalling, jones, shaw
carrick
morgan, herrera
depay, rooney, mata

We have a problem with balance, and that team just looks disjointed and asking for trouble. The squad has the quality's to challenge for the league, if that is our starting 11, he is not learning anything.
 

Sam

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He's picking stupid teams, and stupid tactics, for no apparent reason.
 

The_Midfielder

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Di Maria's assists are a myth.. two of those were shots that ended up being assists.. the rooney assist against arsenal was nothing..
We played better as a team when we had Mata -Herrera on the left.. and Felliani- young -Blind axis on the left..So guys calm down... pls
 

Walrus

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I have been a huge LVG fan but am starting to get a but disillusioned. Playing players out of position is part of it, but also that he insists on changing the system so much. We had a good thing at times last season when playing a proper 4-3-3, now he seems to 've switching to 4-2-3-1, causing various issues.

His selection policy is rather odd at times as well
 

Minimalist

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Di Maria's assists are a myth.. two of those were shots that ended up being assists.. the rooney assist against arsenal was nothing..
We played better as a team when we had Mata -Herrera on the left.. and Felliani- young -Blind axis on the left..So guys calm down... pls
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Heard it all now.
 

Dobba

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imperi

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Had a good laugh reading most of the posts in this thread. Lets just rename this thread to Louis Sackwatch. People always complain, we finally got our midfield sorted out but now people are complaining about the rest of the squad :lol:

DDG being a 'problem' and 'unmotivated', so we should sell our best player for 15million and play Lindegaard. Sounds like a great plan.

Same with our defence, it is preseason and LvG plays Blind as CB. I cannot say I am very enthousiastic about this but it is still preseason and not all our defenders are fit. On top of that, which defender should we have bought to really strenghten our defence? Otamendi for over 40 million quid? If we want to waste our funds maybe we can buy Andy Caroll for that amount, it would be insane with having Smalling, Jones, McNair, Evans and Rojo. Otamendi is not a god defender and not our saviour, otherwise Real would not have sold him at a loss and other clubs would have picked him up.

Last season we had Falcao and RvP as strikers, and everybody was complaining we should have played Rooney as a FC as they did not perform. Now that Louis is doing that, suddenly Rooney is not good enough. Di Maria had little influence last season and heavily underperformed. Real did great business selling him and got maximum value after winning the CL. They already saw he wasnt up to it mentally and he showed that here with even going AWOL. How people think selling him is a mistake is beyond me, his current professionalism is on par with Balotelli. SAF would have literally booted him out of the club and I celebrate the day Louis does the same. It is obvious he never wanted to be here, so good riddance.

We had our best summer in over a decade with our midfield sorted out, keeping De Gea and not being pushed around by Real for once. We probably will get Pedro in and we got one of the biggest talents with Depay. But now people complain about everything except our midfield. It is the world upside down.

The negativity this early on, on here is beyond me.
 

Devil may care

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I don't think he's fully to blame for how flaccid our attack is, that is partly down to not having the striker required to play 4-3-3 well. The central defense mess is all him and his odd obsessions, and if we sell De Gea and replace him with Romero or the nancy from Ajax then the resulting disaster will be on him as well.
 

roykeane19

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Pre-season is the time to tinker and try stuff, results mean nothing and if you get through with few injuries then its served its purpose.

Blind at CB won't be good enough in a million years though.
I mean maybe Blind has the intelligence, but he has not got the physique or body for it, and never will, thats why his main position should be LB

EDIT: just checked some stats not sure how reliable they are, but jones and blind have the same height and weight
 

Garethw

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His constant meddling and fecking about is going to get him sacked.
 

Van Piorsing

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Hard to judge the final product of his managerial performance based on pre-season indeed but we had a quite strong eleven against PSG. What he'll decide in his first days of new season may be crucial.

For all we know he can just stick to his old formula from Ajax, Barca and Bayern experience and win the Premier League. Apart from needed additions I believe his 'end product' is capable making it happen also in United.

Still time to make needed adjustments without making Blind a new O'Shea.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Pre = prefix meaning before, prior to, in advance of, etc.

In the context of "pre-season" it usually also means: feck all.

Probably best to wait until the actual season (the one that follows the pre) starts before readying the rope.
 

R'hllor

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I might be in minority here when i say this but us winning trophy under him isnt most important thing for me.Always tho that us changing our way of play was always his main job,after when he steps aside,next man (with same base) can upgrade the whole thing,also tho that his task is to make all levels of squads sync and play the same way,players coming from youth ranks would benefit from it.

Before the start of last season he said how he cant focus on ranks below seniors,so i am hoping that he will start doing that from this season till he resigns (or gets sack w/e).
 

santeria13

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I've actually stayed firmly behind LVG until now, disagreeing with the odd decision But starting blind as CB against spurs and presumably leaving herrera out of his starting line up is just wrong. I agree, he's trying to be too smart for his own good.
 

DomesticTadpole

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I might be in minority here when i say this but us winning trophy under him isnt most important thing for me.Always tho that us changing our way of play was always his main job,after when he steps aside,next man (with same base) can upgrade the whole thing,also tho that his task is to make all levels of squads sync and play the same way,players coming from youth ranks would benefit from it.

Before the start of last season he said how he cant focus on ranks below seniors,so i am hoping that he will start doing that from this season till he resigns (or gets sack w/e).
That doesn't bode well. :lol:
 

Raoul

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I was excited by his arrival last year only because we had Moyes previously. It’s like going to Burger King when we had only vegetables to eat for 10 months. It’s better on the taste, but not healthier :D

Anyway, I can’t clearly understand his philosophy. Last year was a tough time for us when you see the facts. We started so badly and we invested so much (and not wisely). Normally with ADM, Rooney, Falcao, RVP, he should have the material to finish higher than 4th, but he conviced us that we were not good enough.

But it’s all because of him. The 3-5-2 + his wrong recruitment (Falcao + Rojo) + his switch to diamond + the soporific football played from October to March + the Di Maria mismanagement, the Falcao FLOP, and De Gea saga. We lost too many things (not only points) because of his indecisiveness, his experimentations etc.

And guess what? After fixing the right back position, the Center Midfield position, adding an exciting talent in Depay, he changes his tactics again, he bench our best midfielder, plays an even weaker central defense, plays a keeper who wants to leave and plays Rooney up top (I pass Young on the left and Mata right). So he won points last season in a certain way, but he changes again even if he has the material and the strength in depth.

I’m totally disabused about him, his management. He spent 250M£ in 12 months and we can’t have better than Jones + Blind behind ? Mata as a winger ? and an average Young as our best player ?

I think, and I’m sure that we’re to soft, kind with him because he’s better than Moyes. But when we look clearly everything, it’s not good enough, and we’re going the same way this year. Just let’s hop that we’ll finish top 4 again this season, sack him, and have Ancelotti at United.
:lol:
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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I have a feeling he is forcing a couple of his players, Blind & Memphis into important starting roles when they are not yet ready or suited for it. I don't mind the Blind at CB experiment because Jones hasn't really covered himself in glory and Rojo is not fit or available but using Memphis in a central role is marginalizing players like Mata & Herrera who are ready to fit into that role and make the team function better overall yet he is causing further imbalance by not using them.

The Herrera situation is rather more perplexing because by all statistical metrics, whoscored.com ratings etc he was our best performer last season when afforded a start, yet Van Gaal is doing his best to not use him.

I hope these concerns don't persist when we play regular games but if the preseason is any evidence, we're in for some humbling results before he begrudgingly goes towards playing proper players into their positions for us to win some games.