Louis Van Gaal - Press Conference vs Burnley - Feb 10th

[Melvyn]

See I think rather than being rattled like Rafa was, he will have relished being smug and explaining the situation like he did today. It's not like it's a new thing for him to act like this in a press conference. It's not like he's a nervous young manager acting out of sorts. He's beed doing this for years.

The trouble is that a lot of our fans don't like him, so they can't get behind that sort of arrogance and two fingers to the media. They'd actually like to paint a negative narrative to it.

It's just the sort of argument Ferguson used to love, he'd get a beetroot face and ban a couple of journalists and all our fans would say it's classic Fergie keeping control. Well here's Van Gaal, getting the hard stats out like most people on here do and saying "print what you like but you're wrong and here it is in writing".

Our fans paint a negative narrative to almost everything about the club. If Ferguson was the one who did this, everyone on here would be laughing at big Sam instead.

Can't believe that people think this is a sign of LVG cracking up. I bet the majority here haven't watched the actual video. This is how LVG has always been. The Benitez meltdown was always overplayed by the media and supporters. Mind games? Even Fergie said it was overrated.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Our fans paint a negative narrative to almost everything about the club. If Ferguson was the one who did this, everyone on here would be laughing at big Sam instead.

Can't believe that people think this is a sign of LVG cracking up. I bet the majority here haven't watched the actual video. This is how LVG has always been. The Benitez meltdown was always overplayed by the media and supporters. Mind games? Even Fergie said it was overrated.

I think if LvG does have an actual meltdown it will be on a bigger scale than this. Today I found it all just a bit petty. Benitez meltdown was good, an LvG one will be spectacular.

 

[Man Utd Mrs]

Don't Feck with LVG !!

 

[Pogue Mahone]

It's obvious some fans think it is by their replies. Still think it's just totally embarrassed our club but not as much as he has embarrassed Himself although he probably doesn't realise that. Imagine the amount of hate moyes would get if he did that last season.

End of the day in that particular game he subbed on fellaini, Why? basically to win crosses and long balls no amount of stats can disprove that. We had 2 creators in mata and Herrera, another striker in Wilson he couldve subbed on but no he chose fellaini that pretty much sums the whole argument up

Why? To try something different. It worked too. He also admitted we were playing long ball football at that point. Did you not read the transcript of what he said?

 

[Jippy]

Not sure when four or five pages of A4 became a 'dossier'...

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Why? To try something different. It worked too. He also admitted we were playing long ball football at that point. Did you not read the transcript of what he said?

Yes it did work eventually but it's just the fact he went and printed it out and then looked pathetic explaining it in the presser that's really annoyed me it's just made a mockery of him and all just because of something fat Sam said. A decent manager would've just laughed it off, can you ever imagine mourinho, pellegrini, rodgers or even SAF doing that.

Anyway I saw on sky sports A STAT showed that we are 2nd in long balls throughout the season so it just renders his whole argument pointless anyway, the fact is we are a long ball team.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

The single best thing to come out of this, is that the presser woman's name is Karen Shotbolt Such a sensual name

Can you imagine?!

"Give it to me shotbolters.."

"... Love hath bequeath me, My dearest Shotbolt"

Doubt if anyone is old enough to remember the Golden Shot but imagine if her father's name was Bernie

 

[Redo91]

Nice

http://balls.ie/football/210961-cla...-utd-press-officer-to-louis-van-gaal-dossier/

See the media have picked up on it. Just makes the situation worse. As I said she isn't there to judge or give an opinion. She is just there to co-ordinate.

 

[ravi2]

True.

He's getting more to me more than Moyes ever did. That's actually the weird part.

That is a crazy thing to say, nothing could be worse than last season.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Ironic really when, if he'd have done his homework, he could have just pointed to Rooney's "Beckham" goal in the same fixture last season as an example of how long-balls do work sometimes!

 

[Kakeru]

What people need to remember, is big Sam made these comments purely because we sacked Moyes, one of the poster boys of hard working dipshit british managers.
He has always had a thing about pesky johnny foreigner coming over here and stealing our British managerial positions.

If LVG wanted to find the perfect vantage point for a reply, I believe he could have just said that Sam Allardyce's words are not even worth consideration how his teams played for years and how "Big Sam" ran teams into trouble (aka midtable mediocrity) every time. If LVG said that, it would have been the perfect way to imply the real message that Allardyce is nothing more than a loser and will always be so. It would have been a fitter end to the debate.

I'm surprised it took this long for a "meltdown". He's always had running battles with the press. Glad to see a bit of fire in his belly tbh. Has seemed strangely passive up until now.

Now, he better transfer that fire on the touchlines as well. We will need that more than ever before.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yes it did work eventually but it's just the fact he went and printed it out and then looked pathetic explaining it in the presser that's really annoyed me it's just made a mockery of him and all just because of something fat Sam said. A decent manager would've just laughed it off, can you ever imagine mourinho, pellegrini, rodgers or even SAF doing that.

Anyway I saw on sky sports A STAT showed that we are 2nd in long balls throughout the season so it just renders his whole argument pointless anyway, the fact is we are a long ball team.

You need to understand that STAT in context. We might be second in long balls but do you know how many passes we've made in total? HINT: We've also made more short passes than almost any other team.

 

[Sultan]

Scholes on BT Sport is confused at LvG's actions today.

 

[2 man midfield]

Ironic really when, if he'd have done his homework, he could have just pointed to Rooney's "Beckham" goal in the same fixture last season as an example of how long-balls do work sometimes!

 

[.Rossi]

Doubt if anyone is old enough to remember the Golden Shot but imagine if her father's name was Bernie

Bernie the bolt?

Btw, I'm not that old. I just know from re runs on the sky box

 

[Randall Flagg]

http://balls.ie/football/210961-cla...-utd-press-officer-to-louis-van-gaal-dossier/

See the media have picked up on it. Just makes the situation worse. As I said she isn't there to judge or give an opinion. She is just there to co-ordinate.

I am not going to wish her to lose her job though for a facial expression

 

[gasmanc]

Not sure I like this 'meltdown' sending pre prepared messages, actually spending the time to create a small dossier and then dedicating time to it in his next press conference. It's obvious that what's been said has got to him and big Sam will be chuffed to bits.
This could see him go full retard or he could react positively, I feel the latter is more his style personally but I can't say I'm not a tad concerned.

 

[izec]

http://balls.ie/football/210961-cla...-utd-press-officer-to-louis-van-gaal-dossier/

See the media have picked up on it. Just makes the situation worse. As I said she isn't there to judge or give an opinion. She is just there to co-ordinate.

sack her, totally unprofessional. A club like United should at least have some professional people working in that position. I havent seen anyone at Barca, Bayern or Real doing this sort of thing. Showing this kind of behaviour is absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. Dont know how anyone can defend that attitude towards the club and LvG. What a mess we are on and off the field.
lol

 

[Randall Flagg]

sack her, totally unprofessional. A club like United should at least have some professional people working in that position. I havent seen anyone at Barca, Bayern or Real doing this sort of thing. Showing this kind of behaviour is absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. Dont know how anyone can defend that attitude towards the club and LvG. What a mess we are on and off the field.
lol

Karen has been hung out to dry

EDIT: you sneaky devil

 

[red_devil83]

Dunno if anyone watched Fletch and Sav but they had Scholesy and P Nev on. Phil loved LvG 's presser and Scholesy hated it. I think it just cements the fact that United fans are divided over the issue. Nobody's talking about it in Rafa terms though except for the drama in this thread.

 

[gasmanc]

sack her, totally unprofessional. A club like United should at least have some professional people working in that position. I havent seen anyone at Barca, Bayern or Real doing this sort of thing. Showing this kind of behaviour is absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. Dont know how anyone can defend that attitude towards the club and LvG. What a mess we are on and off the field.
lol

Yep, totally unprofessional, she's let her personal feelings rule her there, it's not like she was caught unawares about it being filmed either.

 

[Smores]

Not sure I like this 'meltdown' sending pre prepared messages, actually spending the time to create a small dossier and then dedicating time to it in his next press conference. It's obvious that what's been said has got to him and big Sam will be chuffed to bits.
This could see him go full retard or he could react positively, I feel the latter is more his style personally but I can't say I'm not a tad concerned.

I think big Sam will just be bemused tbh, it was just light hearted banter from him as the circumstances were amusing.

I'm sure we all know people who are so tightly wound that they can't let any comment fly.

I'm more annoyed at him trying to defend our football. Young also had quotes on the BBC saying how the players were happy with things. I hope not all our players are blinded by LvGs arrogance.

 

[iBoss]

Yep, totally unprofessional, she's let her personal feelings rule her there, it's not like she was caught unawares about it being filmed either.

I've missed all of this. What happened?

EDIT - Never mind, just seen it

 

[.Rossi]

I am not going to wish her to lose her job though for a facial expression

Two cases to be made...

If it was at LVG then, it's completely unprofessional and she's in a bit of bother.

However, no one knows what the journo might have said to her to have her make that face. It could be entirely innocent.

Me? I couldn't give a shit!

 

[gasmanc]

I think big Sam will just be bemused tbh, it was just light hearted banter from him as the circumstances were amusing.

I'm sure we all know people who are so tightly wound that they can't let any comment fly.

I'm more annoyed at him trying to defend our football. Young also had quotes on the BBC saying how the players were happy with things. I hope not all our players are blinded by LvGs arrogance.

We have to hope it might spur him into some sort of reaction but his comments don't do much for hope.
Personally I can live with the cautious football and the seemingly barmy decisions as long as the results keep coming, simply because I believe we will get to where we want to be but, becoming uneasy when some mid table stalwart manager hits the nail on the head reflects as a bit childish.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

Just watched this. Genuinely worried that he's not seeing how shiteous we look on the field. He kept harping about our possession football, but it's just slow, ponderous and impotent football. We don't cut open defences like we used to, or any other top team does anymore. I'm prepared for another shitfest at Burnley.

 

[.Rossi]

Just watched this. Genuinely worried that he's not seeing how shiteous we look on the field. He kept harping about our possession football, but it's just slow, ponderous and impotent football. We don't cut open defences like we used to, or any other top team does anymore. I'm prepared for another shitfest at Burnley.

That's a word?!

 

[Sam]

Has he always been this possesion obsessed? I thought his M.O was all about quick, attacking football? Not this slow, ponderous crap?

@Balu @Blackwidow @PedroMendez @Piratesoup @Brown Toothpick @CLARiiON ?

 

[ThaReaper01]

Newbie called @Jeremiah asked me to post this for him here

God I miss SAF.

 

[Americano]

He'll be showing that same dossier to the board trying to save his job before too long...

 

[JPRouve]

@Sam

Van gaal wants to defend with possession and attack with possession, every risky pass needs to be calculated thoroughly.
He hates seeing a player loosing the ball lightly, and normally he is very bad at hiding it.

He is very Barcelona in Guardiola first year, when the team wasn't totally looking like Guardiola.
It's possession, possession, possession and sometimes a very precise through ball or cross.

 

[Sam]

@Sam

Van gaal wants to defend with possession and attack with possession, every risky pass needs to be calculated thoroughly.
He hates seeing a player loosing the ball, lightly and normally he is very bad at hiding it.

Tbh, I didn't realise he was quite this conservative. I knew he liked possession football, but I thought he had a reputation and history for producing good, attacking, technical football (like we saw in the early weeks of the season). With him being so anti risk, I think he's going to struggle to adapt to the PL.

 

[JPRouve]

Tbh, I didn't realise he was quite this conservative. I knew he liked possession football, but I thought he had a reputation and history for producing good, attacking, technical football (like we saw in the early weeks of the season). With him being so anti risk, I think he's going to struggle to adapt to the PL.

He is not "anti risk" per se, it's just that his favorite type of player, is at the opposite of almost all our players, they do stupid things all the time, so he is not comfortable with them.

A typical "Van gaal" player, will pass the ball to his teammate strong foot, he will move in order to create easy passes, he is able to pass with both feet, he can pass heavy balls straight, he can shoot from distance. But most importantly he thinks on the field and actually search and analyse on the field.

For example Di Maria in Spain was called an headless chicken, he is not a Van gaal player, Van Persie is not a Van gaal striker, Herrera is not a Van gaal midfielder, they all lack patience and analyzing skills.

 

[Sam]

He is not "anti risk" per se, it's just that his favorite type of player, is at the opposite of almost all our players, they do stupid things all the time, so he is not comfortable with them.

A typical "Van gaal" player, will pass the ball to his teammate strong foot, he will move in order to create easy passes, he is able to pass with both feet, he can pass heavy balls straight, he can shoot from distance. But most importantly he thinks on the field and actually search and analyse on the field.

For example Di Maria in Spain was called an headless chicken, he is not a Van gaal player, Van Persie is not a Van gaal striker, Herrera is not a Van gaal midfielder, they all lack patience and analyzing skills.

That does beg the question, why on earth did he spend £90 odd million on Di Maria and Herrera?

Either he's going to have to adapt his 'philosophy' or there's going to be a lot more coming and goings then we expected.

 

[JPRouve]

That does beg the question, why on earth did he spend £90 odd million on Di Maria and Herrera?

Either he's going to have to adapt his 'philosophy' or there's going to be a lot more coming and goings then we expected.

They both can adapt, Di Maria has the abilities to emulate Robben and Herrera has all the qualities to be closer to a typical Ajax midfielder, he just need to work on it, in the next months.
I think that he wants to sign Muller, Depay, Strootman, Schneiderlin.

 

[PedroMendez]

@Sam
in short: yes. His style has one major advantage. Once you are ahead it can frustrated the shit out of the opposition. Its really hard to come back against this passing and if teams have to open up, his teams often start to play their best football. Its a bit weird that we have not seen this yet. The players are way too nervous/shaky even if we are leading. Thats a problem. He always relied to individual brilliance or luck to score the first goal so.
A lot of people are complaining, that we dont see his "philosophy" without realising, that we play exactly how we wants us to play. Thats not an accident, but intended.

Di Maria (and Falcao) were clearly panic transfers from Woody. LvG thinks, that he is able to "improve"/use every player in his master plan (big ego), so I doubt that he had any problem with getting new guys. His transfer activities are a bit weird anyway. I dont think that this part of the job is particularly important for him.

 

[GeneralGattuso]

Seems like LVG's words had the desired effect. Big Sam has come out saying there is no coach more sophisticated than him in the league. LVG should stick the knife in and ask Big Sam to show us his medals. LOL. I'm sure the same could be said for Moyes "sophisticated... for a hoof merchant".

 

[RedPnutz]

The caf is such an excellent display of human bias and/or diversity (depending on how you want to see it)

LVG has always been a self-righteous, egotistical and (overly?) confident manager and that's part of what makes him a winner. With that also comes the baggage that he can be prickly and contentious. We know all this (remember the article written by the Dutch journalists?) and his character was bound to come through sooner or later.

In my opinion, it is just LVG trying to school a manager that he may consider below his tactical nous. Also we have seen how pedantic his is in trying to correct people, and this is just another manifestation of that idiosyncracy. It is neither mind games nor a melt-down.

Last year we cried out for a manager with some back-bone, this year we have a manager with a really stiff one. All manager do crazy things at some point, whether under pressure or not.

There has to be a theme for journalists to write about every year, and for us this year it is "Long ball united". If long balls gets us into champions league then so be it; it's may not be pretty but it gets results.

LVG certainly has a history of playing possession football, and also a good record of adapting his tactics rather than being a long-ball merchant. Maybe what he's seen in training just let's him believe that at some point we just need to play some more long balls. Possession wasn't working too well, so that was Plan B. What's the problem with that?

To me, last year was a failed experiment and this year is a transition. Pragmatically, we need to get into the top 4 and I think we just need to bear with the ugly football if it gets us into the CL. When you get the results, history doesn't care if you played shite, your sponsors don't care if you played shite.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

That's a word?!

It is for us!!

 

[WR10]

Feck me. Out of all the things that could have gone wrong for Van gaal in the EPL, he ends up having a meltdown to Big fecking Sam. ...