Its too funny. So LVG wanted Mane, but Mane didnt want United / LVG. I mean you dont even have to search for the Mane quote on google, its on page 10 at the top posted by
@Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær regarding him thinking United (under LVG) wasnt the right move.
Regarding Di Maria, LVG name dropped him before we signed him. A quick search shows he wanted a player like him (or even him):
https://www.skysports.com/football/...ngel-di-maria-as-he-hints-at-signing-a-winger
But if were talking about players LVG wanted (which I have mentioned before), we would have ended up with Ighalo in January (meaning more likely than not Rashford wouldnt have come through).
I mean, if we are going to look at things under LVGs reign, we need to look at it with the same perspective across all aspects. If we are saying his players were too slow / immobile, then the majority were his signings.
If we are giving him credit for having a small squad so he could use youth, then at the same time you cant say its his fault he had to rely on an old striker in midfield (or using RVP and Rooney in midfield and Fellaini in attack in one game). He could have used youth afterall if we had injuries.
If we are going to hail any of his signings, then we need to discuss all the other players that came under his reign (of course, I see the pattern of successful signings being his, bad signings being the board)
If we are giving him credit for winning the fa cup, then we have to say its also his fault for being trash in the CL, trash in the Europa League and coming fifth in the league in his second season.
If its all the players fault for our crap campaigns, then its solely on the players that the FA cup was won (as it was moments of magic in the semi final (martial), quarter final (rashford) and final (rooney and then lingard).
And what absolute BS that "LvG had no option, he had to play Rooney when he was fit" - this wasnt a contractual issue, this was by choice of LVG. Otherwise if it was contractual, then Jose would have suffererd the same issue and not ended up benching Rooney after he started having absolute stinkers (and couldnt mask it with goals)
This is a manager who had:
-Young as a striker
-RVP as a midfielder
-Rooney as a midfielder
-Fellaini as a striker
-Rashford as a Right Winger/RB after he broke into the team and was scoring playing up top (criminal how he was used away vs Liverpool in the Europa League)
-Martial as left winger after Rooney came back from injury (and martial started his career scoring goals from up top striker position)
-Blind as LB, DM, and CB
-Memphis as Left winger and then number 10
actually, here:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/12/manchester-united-louis-van-gaal-positions
A quick search shows how much he tinkered. For a man who "knew how he wanted to play" he sure did tinker a lot.
I give him credit only for those things he deserves credit for. But trying to make excuses for all his other failures is just laughable. He did more bad than good for Manchester United. His time here was a failure and he deserved to be sacked (he lucky he got as much time as he did)