This worries me as well .But i'm sure the club will not let this happen whoever came in.
United linked with van Gaal in the meeja
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He always was a miserable git and that blog is typically melodramatic. I do agree with a lot of what he says, though.
The time has come for a fresh look at our footballing philosophy and a root and branch review of all football-related activities at the club. Van Gaal seems like a great candidate to do this.
Don't really agree with his assessment of last season. I think we played very good football last season, probably our best since our title win in 07/08.
But yeah we need someone to shake things up, too many players getting slacking off here.
Really? Honestly I can't think of many games where we did, we were great against Madrid but other than that not a lot. I thought we were pretty static and uncreative for the most part, and very reliant on RvP and Carrick to rescue us at times. Although a lot of it was due to our failing wingers.
Well, we're always capable of good goals with players like that, I just don't think our overall football was great.
I don't really think we've played consistently great football since 06/07 actually.
I don't really think we've played consistently great football since 06/07 actually.
Wow. Usually agree with you but couldn't disagree more. We were all over the place last season and not in a good way. A handful of very good performances and brilliant team spirit but never looked like having a consistent and effective approach. All about great individuals, rather than a great team. Carrick and Van Persie (and SAF) dragged us, kicking and screaming, to the title.
I thought our football last season was actually just as bad as this season at times, I remember a lot of people moaning about how Moyes wasn't playing good football early in the season, and my response was usually along the lines of "SAF couldn't get them playing good football, how can you expect Moyes to?" The key difference last season was that we still had the never-say-die attitude under SAF and came from behind in lots of games to win, as opposed to this season where we just had the die bit.
The point I object to was his notion that it was without tactical direction. Surely if you win games without players (as he cites) like Ronaldo than it's actually the opposite of a lack of tactical direction, its using tactical nous to get from games three points where others may have failed.
Well the bar hasn't been set very high by us in terms of attacking play after the title win in 07/08 season. The 08/09 season was a lot 1-0 wins and we had a pretty poor away record in 10/11 season.
Why? If a player is good then he should play irrespective if he's local or foreigner. I also hope that players are bought/developed according to their talent and workrate and not their nationality.
Amazing how many of those Cleverley is integral to.
Think the point the author was making was that the philosophy of the club [playing lightning counter-attacking football with pace, tempo and power] changed after the Champions League win in 2008. The tactics became more pragmatic and far from having a swipe at Fergie, I think the author was extolling his virtues and crediting him for dragging the club over the line.
Completely disagree with that. Our football was extremely disjoint last season and we seemed to constantly win matches either through our mental strength, effectiveness or individual brilliance.
Yeah, agree with the ones saying we were pretty poor last year too. Definitely better than this season but the football wasnt great at all. We desperately need a man with fresh ideas who'l instill a proper attacking style at the club and that's why am so excited about seeing Van Gaal here.
What strikes me about this video is Powell was playing against Chelsea, I dont remember that? was it a cup game? and what excites me is its not too dissimilar to Van Gaal style of play. Id love to see Powell come into the first team as a rotation player.Amazing how many of those Cleverley is integral to.
Another Article on LVG, Everyone is throwing in their tuppence worth on this
http://www.football365.com/manchest...uo-warn-Manchester-United-over-Louis-van-Gaal
http://www.football365.com/manchest...uo-warn-Manchester-United-over-Louis-van-Gaal
Yeh read that earlier. Love how the headline is suppose to make it sound like a negative story but when I read it I actually found it really positive.
That point is a bit harsh, but on the whole, I agreed with the article. Especially the bits about Gary Neville.
I loved the guy as a player but his romantic idealism I don't agree with.
I don't know how true the part about Woodward wanting a big name just to show off is, but it was the impression that I got from last summer. The story about him flying off from Australia, and Moyes talking publicly about Fabregas were so different from the way we usually conducted business. The Mata transfer was conducted a little bit more like the United of old, luckily.
My fellings about van Gaal are very mixed.
I know he is one of the most knowledgeable manager in football and have experience managing top clubs in different leagues and he usually do a great job. But his personallity could be a big problem. We can't really afford one more season like this and you never know which way it goes with van Gaal.
He is known by good work with youth, he knows how to deal with star players and usually gets the most out of his teams. We can modernize our aproach in games under him which we needed to do for a long time now. We lacked modern ideas of play since Queiroz left our club. Fergie was backtracking his aproach since he left to good old 4-4-2 which gave us problems in Europe in recent years. If we are honest even when we came to the final of CL in 2011 we were not nearly as good as our 2008 team. To be honest sale of Ronaldo didn't help either but our quality was dropping year after year. We lacked good youth players, our buys where not the best and our most important players was getting older. Our defense was one of the best back then and I think we made a big mistake in this season when we didn't give real playing time to our young CB's and this could hurt us in next season. In my opinion strong defense is foundations for every good team.
I hope van Gaal can turn this trend and we start building next big team.
His first job is to make solid back four which will play week in week out. For that we need one new left back and we need to decide which two of our CB's will be in the first team and we need to stick with it. For that we need to deal with our RB problems because when Rafael was injured we always played the CB in RB position and i think this was main trouble that we didn't have constant CB partners (along with injuries). I think van Gaal will promote one of our two youth players (Janko or Varela). I don't see any need of buying one mor CB especially if Rio stays for one more season as a backup. And van Gaal history shows that he rarely buy new players if he have good young players at his disposal with which he can work.
His second job will be to deal with our midfield. As i said his history show that he can get the most out of his players and i am looking forward which ideas will he bring to sort our midfield problems. I don't see us buying more then two mdfielders. We still have Carrick, Cleverley, Fellaini, Fletcher and Kagawa and Rooney can both play their part in midfield. For every mdfielder we bring in we must sell one which is already at a club and especially with lack of games if we don't get in Europa league. And i can't see leaving other than Fletcher and maybe Fellaini. Difference between good and great managers are that great managers have unimaginable ideas how to use their players and they make it work. This will be a big test for van Gaal and i am looking forward what he can do with it.
But his biggest job will be our attack. Our big problem is that we have numbers in this area but we somehow can't get the most of our players. And we have players which didn't show they are worth of playing for us in the last two seasons. We didn't buy wisely in recent seasons and now we have 4 strikers and we usually play with only one, 3 players which want to play as a number 10 and they are all to good to be on the bench and we lack quallity on the wings. I am looking forward how van Gaal will deal with our attack and he will have big headaches for this. I mentioned Rooney and Kagawa in midfield before just because we have to many players in their positions. I think Rooney can play on the wing too but i don't want to see anyone of the Mata and Kagawa on the wing because they are to big waste to play them there. If we play both Kagawa and Mata in the team i want to se Mata as a number 10 and Kagawa as box to box mdfielder. I noticed that to many people on this forum underrate Kagawas defensive work. And as i mentioned there are people that are just not good enough for our team. Young will have to go i think, Valencia is having troubles and i see him leaving to, Nani was constantly injured the last two years and if he can't get himself fit and in form till January transfer window i can see him leaving to. That will leave us with Januzaj, Welbeck and possible Rooney for wing options. I think we will need to buy one real quallity winger (quallity like Reus not Lallana). I think that Glazers want one star player signing this transfer window and we can do with star player on the wing. I can see van Gaal promote one of the youngsters too in this department (Lingard or Zaha if he can get his act together.)
I written all this to support my opinions that we don't need to many new players (3 or 4) and we can sell more than we buy especially without any europe games in next season. We need one good manager which will bring new fresh ideas to the club and which will be able to get the most of our current team. Van Gaal is really the best option for this as long as he don't fall out with everyone around him. I hope we can became once again the force we were in 2008 under him.
I know he is one of the most knowledgeable manager in football and have experience managing top clubs in different leagues and he usually do a great job. But his personallity could be a big problem. We can't really afford one more season like this and you never know which way it goes with van Gaal.
He is known by good work with youth, he knows how to deal with star players and usually gets the most out of his teams. We can modernize our aproach in games under him which we needed to do for a long time now. We lacked modern ideas of play since Queiroz left our club. Fergie was backtracking his aproach since he left to good old 4-4-2 which gave us problems in Europe in recent years. If we are honest even when we came to the final of CL in 2011 we were not nearly as good as our 2008 team. To be honest sale of Ronaldo didn't help either but our quality was dropping year after year. We lacked good youth players, our buys where not the best and our most important players was getting older. Our defense was one of the best back then and I think we made a big mistake in this season when we didn't give real playing time to our young CB's and this could hurt us in next season. In my opinion strong defense is foundations for every good team.
I hope van Gaal can turn this trend and we start building next big team.
His first job is to make solid back four which will play week in week out. For that we need one new left back and we need to decide which two of our CB's will be in the first team and we need to stick with it. For that we need to deal with our RB problems because when Rafael was injured we always played the CB in RB position and i think this was main trouble that we didn't have constant CB partners (along with injuries). I think van Gaal will promote one of our two youth players (Janko or Varela). I don't see any need of buying one mor CB especially if Rio stays for one more season as a backup. And van Gaal history shows that he rarely buy new players if he have good young players at his disposal with which he can work.
His second job will be to deal with our midfield. As i said his history show that he can get the most out of his players and i am looking forward which ideas will he bring to sort our midfield problems. I don't see us buying more then two mdfielders. We still have Carrick, Cleverley, Fellaini, Fletcher and Kagawa and Rooney can both play their part in midfield. For every mdfielder we bring in we must sell one which is already at a club and especially with lack of games if we don't get in Europa league. And i can't see leaving other than Fletcher and maybe Fellaini. Difference between good and great managers are that great managers have unimaginable ideas how to use their players and they make it work. This will be a big test for van Gaal and i am looking forward what he can do with it.
But his biggest job will be our attack. Our big problem is that we have numbers in this area but we somehow can't get the most of our players. And we have players which didn't show they are worth of playing for us in the last two seasons. We didn't buy wisely in recent seasons and now we have 4 strikers and we usually play with only one, 3 players which want to play as a number 10 and they are all to good to be on the bench and we lack quallity on the wings. I am looking forward how van Gaal will deal with our attack and he will have big headaches for this. I mentioned Rooney and Kagawa in midfield before just because we have to many players in their positions. I think Rooney can play on the wing too but i don't want to see anyone of the Mata and Kagawa on the wing because they are to big waste to play them there. If we play both Kagawa and Mata in the team i want to se Mata as a number 10 and Kagawa as box to box mdfielder. I noticed that to many people on this forum underrate Kagawas defensive work. And as i mentioned there are people that are just not good enough for our team. Young will have to go i think, Valencia is having troubles and i see him leaving to, Nani was constantly injured the last two years and if he can't get himself fit and in form till January transfer window i can see him leaving to. That will leave us with Januzaj, Welbeck and possible Rooney for wing options. I think we will need to buy one real quallity winger (quallity like Reus not Lallana). I think that Glazers want one star player signing this transfer window and we can do with star player on the wing. I can see van Gaal promote one of the youngsters too in this department (Lingard or Zaha if he can get his act together.)
I written all this to support my opinions that we don't need to many new players (3 or 4) and we can sell more than we buy especially without any europe games in next season. We need one good manager which will bring new fresh ideas to the club and which will be able to get the most of our current team. Van Gaal is really the best option for this as long as he don't fall out with everyone around him. I hope we can became once again the force we were in 2008 under him.
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tl;dr
Great post Jerch, didn't read though.
The closer this is to be finalised the more excited I get. I genuinely wouldn't have Mourinho over LvG now.
The closer this is to be finalised the more excited I get. I genuinely wouldn't have Mourinho over LvG now.
He's been pretty awful for Wigan for quite a while, and he never looked particularly special in his few games here (aside from that one decent goal). For me we should wait until he has a much more successful loan spell before giving him his first team chance. Last thing we need right now is more mediocre midfielders in the squad.
I'd concur with that, I think we'd need to see him against PL opposition on a regular basis, for perhaps a club in the lower half of the PL, to establish whether he has a chance of making it with us or not. Playing for Wigan in the Championship (if they still are) won't tell us much.
We payed so much for him considering he had only scored one wonder goal for Crewe, wasnt it 8m?
Good video that. Some superb goals in there. Just goes to show the difference confidence makes - you'd struggle to find more than about 2 goals of that quality from this season.
£6m according to Wikipedia - still a lot for a completely unproven youngster.
In terms of natural talent it was obvious from about 10 games at Crewe that he had special ability. 6m came from the fact all the top clubs in England were after him. There's a nonchalance to his game that could easily be described as laziness but before his injury at Wigan he took to it like a duck to water and looked one of the top players in the division. Hasn't got much game time since coming back but I agree that he needs Premier League experience and isn't ready for United yet. Always strikes me as one of those players that would flourish under the right direction from the right manager.
Well thats promising but didnt Zaha blow away the Championship only to become an outcast figure in the prem.
On another note, I hope we stick with Van Gaal and arent drawn into the speculation about Pep
Pep is on another level to Van Gaal lets not think otherwise.
Agree with this and this is the reason I struggle to see him converting to a central midfielder and moreover, a box-to-box midfielder as some suggest. He simply doesn't possess the high-octane, energy style for a successful conversion into that position. I wouldn't necessarily attribute it as laziness on his behalf, he just plays the game at his pace, much like Berbatov did. If he was to become a success here, which I still fully expect and hope he can be, it would be down to the manager accommodating him into the side, but not demanding more physical exertion from him.
I think he could thrive under Louis van Gaal, if he is to thrive under any manager, given how he entrusts young players with gametime and playing as part of a three in midfield. Maybe that's the long-term goal however, at this moment in time, I'd rather see him play further advanced up the pitch whether that's for us or on loan at another club.
An inferior level.
Meanwhile in Australia today. This is who United are linked with. Harold from Neighbours.
I wouldnt be so sure on that, obviously Peps style and record is absolutely incredible but LVG has proved himself in Holland, Spain and Germany at the very top level bringing youth through and playing attractive counter attacking football mixed with possesion to me that appeals more than having 7-8 players rotating the ball amongst themselves in-front of 11 player on the 18 yard line. We dont have the players to play that way and utilise it nor does that style suit the premier league.
We tried playing that way against Everton and got battered. I mean Pep was my No.1 choice when Fergie left but he seems reluctant to adapt, to do whats needed to win when he comes up against it. His style is Spanish small low centre of gravity players passing to one another in sharp triangles with runners darting in behind the defensive line ala Messi and co. I would be very cautious dumping LVG for Guardiola. His style would suit a team like Arsenal much more.
I like the way that over the past couple of weeks we've had nothing but positive stories about player's experiences with LvG, now that he is set to sign the deal, the papers are rolling out all the negative stories.
Anyway, on a 2 year deal if things do go a bit sour after 18 months or so, then there is a get out for both sides.
Anyway, on a 2 year deal if things do go a bit sour after 18 months or so, then there is a get out for both sides.
They are probably scared stiff they will be physically assaulted in the press conferences.
Guardiola's tactics have been humiliated twice now in 2 very big ties and he's done nothing about it. He will show how good a manager he is if he improves his tactics and starts dominating again.
Don't see a issue in a 2-year-contract. We have learned from our mistakes and don't want to offer another 5 or 6-year contract. And if LvG is a success he can still sign for one or 2 more seasons, if not it will be a easy exit for him. Hope the deal get finalized next week
van Gaal has failed in every team which isn't Dutch or the Dutch national team. Barcelona and Bayern both were less than impressive journeys in his career and taking AZ Alkmaar to a good position in the league and later winning it is impressive, but it is not an achievement to push you in to the top tier of managers.
The most disturbing thing with van Gaal is that his successes hasn't been growing, instead his most impressive results was taking Ajax to become one of the best teams in the world with a revolutionary 3-4-3. After that he took Barcelona and failed, went to the Dutch national team and failed, following by a failed second shot at Barcelona.
After that he went to AZ and was very impressive, to fail the step up to Bayern, and then go to the Dutch national team again where he has succeeded this time so far.
Basically one step forward, two steps back.
How did he fail? He went to Barca and won the league twice, won the copa del rey and the UEFA super cup, went to Bayern and won the league and the German cup. His downfalls weren't related to his inability to manage but more related to everyone turning against him because he has a falling out with a fan favorite or the media.
By your own standards Guardiola would be a failure if he's sacked by Bayern. His sacking would have nothing to do with his managerial ability but just because they don't like his style or they don't think his style relates to the Bayern identity.
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