I really doubt that. Some of the stuff I read here, like 'it was a 5-3-2 in defence and 4-3-3 in attack' or 'it was more like a 4-2-1-2-1', there's this big bowl of stats they grab in tot find the one that suits their opinion, the pundits are probably taken at least remotely seriously but people like Shearer and Soeness are often talking pure nonsense, and I can remember Scholes explaining the concept of triangles like it was something new. Last year I got laughed at because I said Conte was one of today's best managers.
They might know about traditional British football for sure, but that's just a part of football and it's been getting a less important of football for decades. I even get the feeling they just appreciate SAF because he brought them silverware. There is something special about the PL that is hard to know for foreign managers, but England's finest are in the relegation battle for a reason.
I don't agree. Football is about winning, fans shouldn't be too impatient and they were, helped by the press, but it took him too much time. At Bayern he had the turn around after about half a season, the fans there got impatient too, but he did the magnificient job of changing the football style of the entire club for many years to come and win the double and very nearly the treble in the process. At United it was only the beginning of december it became clear what he was working on (Tottenham away), his first spell that it started to work was somewhere at the end of april and may, but after a few good results and good matches the season ended with slow passing and moving again, and the next season it never really took off. Then there was this horrible december with all of that bad luck, but if he had progressed more in the months before they could have handled that.
I believe he just overestimated almost everything, the club, the board, the players and English football in general. The players didn't get it, could do as told but couldn't play with creativity and imagination within that set up and even couldn't handle beeing told what they did wrong and they were short on technique and awareness anyway. The board turned out not to be committed to a continental playing style and young players at all and went behind his back to Mourinho, undermining his authority. The fans where acting like typical top club in decline fans, desperate and claiming to be prepared to sacrifice entertainment just as long as it's good for the long term, but when the worst panic is over and the ship is steadied, they become impatient and very demanding immediately, expecting results and entertainment like in the best days of Ferguson, which Ferguson couldn't have come close to himself. He probably did underestimate the effect of the pace of the PL on his style a bit, and the patience of the press, just waiting and waiting until he was weakened by a bad run of results.
I don't believe he has left a legacy, that takes the cooperation of the board and his successor. They don't care and Mourinho wanted to avoid any credit going to LvG from the start anyway. That's what bothers me most, Van Gaal made mistakes and paid the price, unfair maybe but football isn't about fairness to managers. With hiring Mourinho the board killed off the policy of youth players, so there's no policy at all, and the modern continental style too, so there's no United style at all, it will just change with the manager. It's just spending big and hope individual brilliance will win it with counter attacks. With a different manager who'd play a continental style and followed a youth policy I would be much more confident about the future. Watching Dortmund play worries me a lot in case United might clinch 4th, and the Glazers are protecting their investment now by investing more, but in the end they are in it for the money. China starts to compete on money, Spain competes on the good life and money, Italy will recover and Germany is on the rise with great crowds and atmosphere and unpolluted football culture. Brexit is coming, pound might devaluate considerably, TV-money and tickets are stretched to the point of breaking, how is United going to challenge for the CL in the future? Youth and teamwork could turn out to have been the best chance.