The squad he did build was very average and had declined since Moyes days and every move LVG made just made it weaker. De Gea did play like a GOD for him and gave us 10-20 points extra, but not sure how much credit LVG should have for that apart from maybe having a good coach for goalkeepers. I think Mourinho did improve the squad a bit more and his ideas in the market was better. Although he did go for too many older players.
He gave us Romero, Shaw, Herrera (whom folks are gutted over leaving today), Blind (not his fault Jose is a moron who sold him, his Ajax form shows he is an incredible talent), Martial (still time to prove himself, although its running short) and debuted Rashford (and don't give me crap about luck and what not, he was in his plans).
De Gea actually made more saves under Jose than he did for LVG's United. Wouldn't that suggest we were far more reliant on him than LVG was then? We had a better defence under LVG, Smalling & Blind is still our best CB pairing post Ferguson for me. Shaw's form pre leg break was very good, he started the 2nd season superbly.
Our midfield was the issue in reality, he was stuck with an ageing and under performing Rooney (Thanks to Moyes and his 5 year deal) and Fellaini (Moyes again). He made errors with Morgan & Bastian but I don't recall many complaining when they were signed.
Attack, Martial & Rashford were doing well and looked very promising only for Jose to ruin both of them and stall their development.
Overall I think LVG set the squad back, but Mourinho had a mixed effect. The last year for Mourinho was terrible though and he did go into suicide mode which we have seen before. Although he didn't really have time to ruin the squad apart from the Sanchez signing.
Ah come on now, think back to that FA Cup final win and the form of players around then.
De Gea was in superb form, Valencia was arguably one of the best defensive RB's in the league still, Smalling & Blind were doing very well, Shaw performed pre leg break / Young filled in well at that time.
Our Midfield wasn't much to write about, Herrera was hit n miss at the time as he needed a season to settle as is often the case with many foreign imports. Still, as bad a signing as he was Fellaini often saved the day for LVG (done the same for Jose too then).
Martial & Rashford were looking like 2 seriously talented young kinds in May 2016.
Now list me the players who were top of their game in Dec 2018 when Jose got the bullet? De Gea? Lindelof improved but still well off the mark. Shaw hasn't quite been the same player since that leg break. Pogba & Matic were out of the side more than in it. Rashford & Martial shot of confidence and Rom his big forward signing was utterly dreadful and woefully out of shape.
Aside from all that, LVG had all the players working with the ball. They were far better technically, even if our patience levels were tested like never before. Jose gifted teams possession and sat back and was never a proactive manager. It was so incredibly negative to allow teams over run us and box us in and rely on De Gea to bail us out then hope for a mistake to capitalize on.
I think taking over from Mourinho would be easier than taking over from LVG. That is my main point here. We did see Ole getting results directly using Mourinhos team. With that said I don't think Ole is the guy to improve this team further and we do need to improve our squad a lot.
In terms of long term damage I say LVG ruined us the most then Mourinho and then Moyes. Still hopefully we can do much better in the market and build a team for the future.
I think we are lucky that LVG did fail to reach champions league in his second year. One more year with LVG and our squad could have been fecked to the extreme and been in midtable in my view.
See I think of it completely the opposite.
LVG went into United and completely restructured all the teams from youth up, similar to how Ajax & Bayern operate. Which is something a large section of our fan base have demanded for god knows how long. Our youth teams benefited tremendously, as is often the case with LVG. We won back to back leagues under his tenure here and many of the youth players were buzzing with him as manager.
Think of it this way, Ole & Mike are now rolling out the same ideals LVG was doing already at the club in 2014! He had an intense interest in the youth teams, promoting youth. They are, it seems attempting to follow the Ajax / Bayern model by involving ex players in roles at board / managerial level, from Carrick and Phelan as coaches and Fletch or Rio as DoF.
Weather LVG got season 3 or not, if we went from LVG to Ole I'd be absolutely certain that we'd be far, far, far better for it. There is a clear continuation there of many of the same ideals of investing in youth and club structure.
Basically erasing Jose from the clubs history ideally.