Was Louis Van Gaal our best "coach" in the post Fergie years?

[VanDeBank]

LVG got rid of RVP, Nani, Chicharito, Kagawa, Welbeck, and Zaha, played Rooney in DM and DiMaria as a striker and then complained that we "don't have a 20 goal scorer". No sh*t. You got rid of one and are playing the other at midfield. Oh, and the guy who can set them both up, you're playing as a striker. Not to mention the other attacking talent he got rid of. And with these 7 attacking players that he got rid of, he brought in Martial and DePay to replace them. Along with a bunch of defensive players. The man was an idiot and his football was awful...

RvP was done after that injury before the world cup. He didn't even play that well at the world cup which was the Robben show.

Rooney was also over the hill.

I think you're misremembering his first season. RvP, Rooney, Falcao were all shit, with Rooney being the least shit.

He was right to get rid of all the players you mentioned. I mean he's been proven right on nearly all of them, including Wellbeck and Zaha.

He also didn't play Rooney in DM. He played as a 10 and ocassionally as an 8.

His signings were awful though, no doubt about that.

 

[Plant0x84]

This OP is easy to answer. God No!

 

[Hugh Jass]

Players bought and sold was terrible although he came out years later and said he wasnt backed.

But we actually had an attacking style. Just couldnt break down teams.

 

[GMoore23]

He was.

At the time the football was absolutely soul destroying though. So boring that I think Rooney and Carrick had a private meeting with him to plead for the rigid style to be eased a tad.

I will say this though. Our players were coached to perfection under him, so much so that it was like watching a computer program. We controlled possession in every game, even against City.
The main downfall during Van Gaal's era as stated above is that the recruitment was diabolical. One of the biggest if not the biggest scouting network in the world and they were a bunch of clowns.
Guardiola's philosophy is actually extremely similar to Van Gaal's and it requires world class talent to pull it off. Guardiola only beat us by goal difference in his first season with city, the players weren't good enough to play his style so he spent a shit tonne of money on new ones. His recruitment was much better than Van Gaal's though.

 

[Champ]

Gonna be controversial here and say that I actually enjoyed some of the football we played under LVG, some of it was dire, but I enjoyed the feeling that we were going to dominate possession near enough every game.
I also enjoyed the tactical approach, every game relied on intelligence by the players on terms of passing options, movements and positional play, we miss that alot now.

 

[Volksie316]

Jose was the best post Fergie, in terms of trophies won.

I liked Van Gaal. He spoke really well and he clearly had a set philosophy.

We played some great stuff under him, especially against Liverpool.

Shame it did not work out.

 

[VeevaVee]

I mean, it seems he got the players doing pretty much exactly what he told them to but in the easiest way possible - without scoring goals. Teams were happy to let us do it because we posed so little threat. It was horrible to watch and by all accounts horrible to be involved in, on and off the pitch.

It seems Moyes ripped the heart out of the club and LVG sealed the rotten atmosphere in.

 

[VanDeBank]

Players bought and sold was terrible although he came out years later and said he wasnt backed.

But we actually had an attacking style. Just couldnt break down teams.

He never said he wasnt backed. He said he often didnt get his primary targets, but rather players further down the list he handed Woodward. He was suprised because he assumed United could get anyone.

Very few clubs work like that, he practically had a carte blanche. He flushed 300m down the toilet. It looks slightly less stupid now because of the Ole era.

 

[Ekeke]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...s-van-gaals-key-mistakes-at-manchester-united

 

[ColvaleGoa]

His football reminded me of what dementors did in Harry potter....sucked the life out of you.

There were a few exceptional games but bar that I would not like to relive those horrible times. So No from me.

 

[Vidyoyo]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...s-van-gaals-key-mistakes-at-manchester-united

Fair points, especially about trying to accommodate Rooney, but I kinda liked how he called out Scholes. He was so negative for a while and not in a particularly entertaining way.

 

[RedCurry]

In hindsight, I believe he was. We had fluked onto the perfect managerial style for us. But his downfall was some of the unnecessary dogma like his instance on Rooney always playing. Then having not enough belief in his own philosophy and constantly featuring Fellaini in his sides.

The late years of Rooney and prime Fellaini would never feature in. LVG top sides.

He had to go when he did. But the man to replace him was exactly polar opposite of him in style of football. We took one step forward and two steps back. Had we gone with a manager with similar philosophy as LVG, we’d have had some continuity and would be in far better shape by now.

 

[Acheron]

Yikes, the bar is very low but sure why not. I'd say is Mourinho but Van Gaal would be the second, althogh they had very different styles so probably not the best idea to have Mourinho as his successor.

 

[dinostar77]

It would have been interesting if he stayed one more season. The reports at the time said he was planning on signing Mane from Southampton, Ericsson (was he at spurs then or ajax?) and someone else who would play the opposite wing to mane.

 

[Hughie77]

By far for me we kept the ball but couldn't fecking score enough goals . Possession was his way and imo I thought it was better than what came after, OK Jose got us 2nd and so did ole, but in differing ways. Imo if we had won that Europa league final, this season would have got off to a much better start and ole would still be here. Somehow these players have got worse from the previous season, and who could predict that.

 

[Get In Scholesy]

Van Gaal, the best trainer coach who tried his utmost best.

 

[Bondi77]

To start off, I'll say his recruitment was dreadful and his vision for football downright sleep inducing at times.

But in terms of the influence he had over the players individually and as a group, to me he was clearly the best at getting them to do what he wanted on the pitch. That was clear from the first couple of games he took charge in. You knew what you were expecting from his team when they went out on the pitch - even if it wasn't pretty. The players I think also developed best under him - he had a transformative effect especially on Smalling and De Gea. De Gea was sweeping under him and became a lot more comfortable coming out of the box. Smalling became a more dominant CB.

His signings were genuinely dreadful though. His vision was outdated, but his implementation of it was actually quite good. Anyone else feel the same way?

All depends if you view football as entertainment I suppose.

 

[Buster15]

Yes. He was clearly successful at implementing a style and philosophy.

Unfortunately, the style was boring and the philosophy antiquated and the football as a result was tedious and shite.

Bingo. Exactly that.

 

[90 + 5min]

To start off, I'll say his recruitment was dreadful and his vision for football downright sleep inducing at times.

But in terms of the influence he had over the players individually and as a group, to me he was clearly the best at getting them to do what he wanted on the pitch. That was clear from the first couple of games he took charge in. You knew what you were expecting from his team when they went out on the pitch - even if it wasn't pretty. The players I think also developed best under him - he had a transformative effect especially on Smalling and De Gea. De Gea was sweeping under him and became a lot more comfortable coming out of the box. Smalling became a more dominant CB.

His signings were genuinely dreadful though. His vision was outdated, but his implementation of it was actually quite good. Anyone else feel the same way?

I thought that we were on way to achive something with him. Football was not always beautifle but it was pragmatic and we played step by step. If he was best post Fergie? I don't know. What I know was that fans didn't want that type of football we played wich is shame. Everyone wanted some kind of attacking kamikaze football. He should have got more time but critics from inside and outside and Mourinho being available changed everything. Very educated football man.

I got a feeling that Rangnick is in the same bucket of managers like vanGaal. Hopefully he will be given time.

 

[ManchesterManchester]

Van Gaal was a brilliant manager. We just got him on the tail end of his career, his philosophy wasn’t cutting edge anymore. He was one of the first manager to follow Jordi Cruyff so was quite revolutionary when he came on the scene. Obviously it’s now all about the gengen press with the new breed of revolutionary managers.

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

I miss LvG a Lot simply because of his character. Funny dude you gotta give it to him.

Feel like bad transfers and his stubborness cucked him a bit on the football side.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

Pure possession football only works with a Messi or Robben or a Supremely quick and lethal finisher like David Silva.

LVG instilled his tactics well but like OP stated the recruitment was terrible and detrimental.

You could see he was on to something with his possession system and buying Martial who is suited to possession football and not counter attacking or pressing.

 

[Irwin99]

Yes, in my opinion, though it is a low bar. The worst team assembled (much of that I blame on Ed) but he had a vision to improve our technique and possession play which was needed as we're currently miles behind Liverpool, City and Chelsea on those fronts and I think that partly comes from the coaches. If he could have gotten the team to play consistently how they did against Liverpool at Juanfield that would have been a brand of football I could really get behind, even if wasn't the 'traditional' United way. I hadn't seen a Liverpool team bossed that way at Anfield for a long time , especially in the first half

He's also the coach I've liked the most as a person in the post-SAF years; a proper 'old school' legend of the game and a good man. Obviously Ole is a legend and a great guy but...i never had any belief in his vision or really enjoyed what he had to say. Jose was the toxic one, and Moyes very unlikable.

Martial looked like he was gonna be one hell of a star under him as well.

 

[SER19]

I sometimes think if we had proper recruitment in place for van gaals time, he'd have done better.

Shaw and Herrera were decent signings. Blind too. Di Maria was huge but not what we needed and a good director or well run club would have known. Martial was good under lvg. Schneiderlin and schweinsteiger were terrible signings that fans were excited by but again you'd expect a well run club wouldn't have signed them

 

[Skills]

I sometimes think if we had proper recruitment in place for van gaals time, he'd have done better.

Shaw and Herrera were decent signings. Blind too. Di Maria was huge but not what we needed and a good director or well run club would have known. Martial was good under lvg. Schneiderlin and schweinsteiger were terrible signings that fans were excited by but again you'd expect a well run club wouldn't have signed them

I reckon if we had managed top 4 the season before, we could've got Alexis Sanchez that summer. Would've been a much better fit than Di Maria for us - who wasn't what we needed & also didn't want to be here.

 

[madzo2007]

I still think things would have been different if we hadn't have lost that Leicester game 5-3 in which we were fairly fluid and flexible going forward

The game changed on penalties but if he held out on that game won 3/4-1 in the end we might not have been so rigid for the rest of the season and boring everyone to sleep.

 

[siw2007]

LVG the man, was my favourite out of the post Fergie bosses. Very intelligent man who preached a way of playing that emphasised possession and intelligence, to me he was the only one who sought to challenge the players intellectually and to develop their footballing brain.

His downfall came from by the time he came here, other managers had taken his mantra and improved upon it which left his looking outdated. And of course, himself and the club failed to make the correct decisions in the transfer market, including players that shouldn’t have been signed and players that didn’t need to leave.

 

[SER19]

I reckon if we had managed top 4 the season before, we could've got Alexis Sanchez that summer. Would've been a much better fit than Di Maria for us - who wasn't what we needed & also didn't want to be here.

Fabregas moved that summer too for a decent fee, mane wasn't well known but was picked up for 20m by Southampton. We wasted so much money those years

 

[allen7]

It was like a poor version of pep’s football

 

[degea_s_fringe]

Who was it that he brought on to play up front in the champs lge must win, v wolfsberg i think??

 

[micmac]

Post SAF LVG was the best we had. He actually identified issues we had and was trying to fix it in a Doc from Back to the Future way. We were overstocked in wide players and number 10s. If Rangnick sticks around longer than interim he'll be running into the same issue as LVG. As a matter of fact when LVG used to talk about football intelligence etc.....seems like Rangnick might be facing that wall with the players

 

[youngrell]

Easy to look back and say his transfers were awful, but at the time most fans were on board with them.

Schneiderlin was probably the worst and he was seemingly on every fan's list.

And on the flip side, he was reported to want Mane and the fans were up in arms about him not being the required quality.

I liked him as manager, just wished he was a bit more flexible in his approach because the core principles of his tactics were good.

 

[BluesJr]

We’d have won titles if we had stuck with his general approach.

 

[daveskimufc]

I was so excited watching his first preseason. Playing 3 at the back and scoring loads (yes, not top notch teams) but abandoned this for the first game of the season

 

[Dante]

Having an identifiable philosophy =/= being a good or effective coach

 

[Red the Bear]

Some heavy revisionism is going on in this thread, the football was even more dreadful and tumescent then even the worst mou could dish out. As much as I enjoyed him getting him sacked was the right choice but how we responded? Not so much.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

People were genuinely falling asleep during games when Van Gaal was in charge.

 

[charlenefan]

But in terms of the influence he had over the players individually and as a group, to me he was clearly the best at getting them to do what he wanted on the pitch. That was clear from the first couple of games he took charge in. You knew what you were expecting from his team when they went out on the pitch - even if it wasn't pretty.

The fact both Mourinho and Ole managed higher league finishes than LVG suggests they did the best at getting the team to do what was asked of them. You certainly knew what you would get from Mourinho's United sides as well

Up until RR every manager post Fergie has been better than the last but then RR is an interim so hopefully the upward curve will continue when we get the actual man in

 

[tomaldinho1]

How so?

Pre transfer committee, managers gave Woodward names of players they wanted but that was really their only input, when it became clear United couldn't go out and just buy anyone like we said we could do he ended up having to raid his old network for signings (when you think of how old he was and that he was out of domestic football it's no wonder it was so bad): ADM, Schweini, Blind, Depay, Valdes, Rojo, Romero were all former players, players he'd tried to sign years back or simply just seen at the WC and liked the look of...that's how badly we were run post SAF/Gill.

As said, no issues with the sacking, his football wasn't right for us as a club but if we're judging on what we see on the pitch, he's the only one who actually put any kind of complex structure in place tactically.

 

[Someone]

Yes. I'd like to think of a universe where he had the players to achieve his vision. But at the end of the day we ended up being too boring.

One thing for sure, of all the previous managers, he had the most influence, and was actually able to leave his clear mark on the team. He also had a good personality and wasn't boring.