LVG was good for health. I slept more during his reign including the matches than at any time in my life.
Was Louis Van Gaal our best "coach" in the post Fergie years?
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I think a lot of what he did make logical sense, but it didn't come off, particularly in attack. So, not really, but I think if you redid everything with a new roll of the dice, he'd have been the best between Fergie and Ten Hag.
Ten Had already best since Fergie. Most of our problems are attributable to having holes in the squad (#9, Varane fitness, no backup RB, no quality Eriksen backup) and his football makes sense and when he gets something wrong he changes it fast.
Ten Had already best since Fergie. Most of our problems are attributable to having holes in the squad (#9, Varane fitness, no backup RB, no quality Eriksen backup) and his football makes sense and when he gets something wrong he changes it fast.
Dumb. It reflects your football knowledge.
We scored more 4-0 or 5-0 matches than any time since Fergie under Ole and yet....
We were so boring, I struggled to stay awake watching some of our games. I'm not exaggerating, my eyes genuinely glossed over. In the first season, it wasn't too bad. By the second, we seemed worse, more boring and were sliding down the table.
I'd swap Ole and Moyes. Ole had some successes but Moyes didn't.
Well, he had a clear playing style. There was also that trio of wins against the big teams in his first season, his league record against Liverpool was perfect and won us the FA cup, which we rarely win nowadays. He handled the media well and had some memorable media quotes.
Still, his player purchases were terrible and he couldn’t implement his possession style successfully. There was a run of 0-0 half time results with no shots in goal, some winless streaks with only a few shots in the entire match. The possession stats always looked good but the overall play was subpar.
Overall, LVG was mixed.I would class him in the middle, below ETH and Jose while being better than Ole and Moyes.
Still, his player purchases were terrible and he couldn’t implement his possession style successfully. There was a run of 0-0 half time results with no shots in goal, some winless streaks with only a few shots in the entire match. The possession stats always looked good but the overall play was subpar.
Overall, LVG was mixed.I would class him in the middle, below ETH and Jose while being better than Ole and Moyes.
Did it though? A lot of the useless possession we used to have was supposed to be a way of tiring down the opposition and eventually we’d get our chance. The reality was that we’d play that way for 70 minutes and then he’d throw Fellaini up and top and just lump crosses towards him. He was way beyond being good enough to manage a league title challenging team. His Holland record shows that he can still bore his way to the latter stages.
The football we played under Van Gaal was disgracefully boring, especially in that 2nd season.
It also has to be said the competition Van Gaal faced in his time here from 2014-2016 was so much weaker than anything Utd managers have faced since. City, Liverpool and Arsenal were all basically a bit shit in that time, Chelsea had a complete meltdown in his 2nd season here. And yet despite all that we still only managed 4th and then 5th.
Won the FA Cup which was great, with probably the easiest FA Cup run we've ever had but still.
He was a horrible Utd manager.
It also has to be said the competition Van Gaal faced in his time here from 2014-2016 was so much weaker than anything Utd managers have faced since. City, Liverpool and Arsenal were all basically a bit shit in that time, Chelsea had a complete meltdown in his 2nd season here. And yet despite all that we still only managed 4th and then 5th.
Won the FA Cup which was great, with probably the easiest FA Cup run we've ever had but still.
He was a horrible Utd manager.
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He wasn't very good as a Man Utd manager, that's the problem. The signings were appalling and he felt about 10 years behind the times at club level.
Still better than Moyes and Jose for me, but no point making out that we did the wrong thing when that's patently not true - he had to go.
Still better than Moyes and Jose for me, but no point making out that we did the wrong thing when that's patently not true - he had to go.
You are such a clever WUM, always under the radar as if you are making genuine conversation
I preferred Ole. He was useless but not often boring. LVG was painful to watch it was so dull. 45 minutes of passing side to side.
Shit signings and the most boring football I've ever seen us play.
We didn't develop the attacking structures that Ten Hag has already installed here, but I do think some of that was that our players didn't buy in whatsoever. Memphis is scoring tons of goals for the Dutch under him, Gapko now doing well, I think if the players had bought in it could have been different. Not sure I think that about Mourinho, definitely don't about Ole or Moyes, and I even somewhat defend Moyes because I do think his career shows he would have failed but could have set us up decently in terms of transfers if he'd stayed another year or 2 and we might have been better in the 2nd half of the decade.
Like all since SAF and before Ten Hag he was terrible. Really really shit.
Exactly. I’m still pissed he ignored De Vrij and signed Rojo purely because he was left-footed.
The nutter.
Won’t argue against that. For me Ole is lower simply because he had the time and money. Moyes on the other hand took league champions to 7th so can see the argument for him being our worse.
Thinks this captures my thoughts on the matter pretty succinctly.
We played boring football with side to side passing and inert possession. His transfer were a failure in the majority. Thanks God we get rid of him.
The man was the master of boredom no one else comes close to him, but man I miss his press conferences 
Van Gaal is a good manager when the players fit him because he's such a tactically rigid manager. Problem was we had Smalling and Phil Jones being asked to play possession football. He signed Schwein and Schneiderlin, that made a lot of sense but unfortunately none of them worked, especially Schweinsteiger who just wanted to date and watch tennis. He signed Di Maria who also made a lot of sense but turns out he's a rat and wherever he goes he keeps getting robbed. Blind did okay and Depay was a gamble at such age. Looking back none of those names are bad signings until you know they didn't work out. The only bad signing I could think of was the past it Falcao.
Managers like Ten Hag is less rigid. You can see how once he spots some players cannot play his system, he changed things around. Good luck convincing Van Gaal to do that.
Managers like Ten Hag is less rigid. You can see how once he spots some players cannot play his system, he changed things around. Good luck convincing Van Gaal to do that.
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I was one of the few who was sad to see him go and would have given him another season after winning the FA Cup
Undoubtedly he's a very good coach but his possession style did not go down well at Old Trafford and the lack of goals was his downfall
Undoubtedly he's a very good coach but his possession style did not go down well at Old Trafford and the lack of goals was his downfall
The period from Feb to May it actually looked to be clicking, no doubt we would have shit the bed in that summer again and left him with less to work with but Rashford, Martial and even Tim Fosu Mensah were playing great stuff in that time period.
But he was already done after that christmas period, if he had somehow sneaked 4th then who knows. Knowing what I know about Mourinho's stint I probably would have begged for us to stick with the crazy Dutch bastard.
Eth > Mou > Lvg > Ole > Moyes
The football was dire and it was a genuine task watching us play throughout but I think it might have gotten better had he gotten one or two more transfer windows. He had no real wide players and no midfield which contributed to the football being borderline unwatchable. Think he was about to address it when he got fired.
Haha!
He definitely was. No longer did I have high blood pressure and stress when we were one nil down with twenty minutes to go because it was clear we had already lost.
No adrenaline surge at the thought of equalising, no cortisol spike at an easy miss just plain old resignation.
Done the heart a ton of good
Ole up to the pandemic > ETH > First 2 seasons Mou > LVG > Final season Mou > Moyes > Post-pandemic Ole.
I wasn't aware that covid made Ole stupid.
Incredible coach, but probably shouldn't have had such a free reign on transfers. He made some shocking calls. Although I think if he were to have managed us now he'd have been operating in a healthier setup.
If only his football was as entertaining as his personality.....he would have been class.
Such a geezer. Louis van Gaal’s red army
Nah.
That december was brutal. But still behind JM for me because of FA win. History books only will remember trophies one not this X place in league bullshit.
That december was brutal. But still behind JM for me because of FA win. History books only will remember trophies one not this X place in league bullshit.
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If he'd had Pogba or a truly creative midfielder, and a proper fit number 9, I do think things might have gone a bit differently for him. The football was so dull but the ideas were there, you could see what he was attempting. Some of the signings in that era were so bad though.
I loved him as a bloke though, hilarious, such a likeable and daft fella.
I loved him as a bloke though, hilarious, such a likeable and daft fella.
Mind numbingly boring football and bit of a pretentious arsehole. Glad he went.
LVG for the press conferences.
He also rejected Mane
I wonder why he is so happy, since all three goals yesterday was direct shots.
Ye I think the decision to sack him had been taken long before the cup final and it was really was dire around that Xmas period
His reliance on an over the hill Rooney to get all the goals was a major issue
Not exactly. He handed down a list of players per position. Sometimes he got player no 7 off the list.
Big deal. I'm sure there were 6 better CBs than Rojo at the time (such as Laporte or Otamendi?) and I'm sure Di Maria was high on his list.
His football was the worst on top off the dubious signings. His time here is justifiably ranked as poop.
ETH hasn’t had a full season yet, has had much better recruitment and already had a more complete squad to begin with. I think he probably is a better coach especially for modern football.
Out of all the rest it was undoubtedly LVG, Martials comments recently about how LVG would pull him in and watch footage together and show him what he needs to be doing goes to show that. He made it clear that had never happened with any of the others.
LVG also made it clear that he never got what he wanted recruitment wise and I think we all can see it’s hard to implement what you want to do if you don’t have the right parts. By the end of his tenure when he started using Lingard in his midfield to drive the ball out it Started coming together for me and you could see it improving.
We bottled it and went for the worst choice in Jose setting us back even further. I think one More window and LVG would have got us there, especially when we were linked with players like Laporte, VVD, Sané, Jesus, Sanches and the likes.
Out of all the rest it was undoubtedly LVG, Martials comments recently about how LVG would pull him in and watch footage together and show him what he needs to be doing goes to show that. He made it clear that had never happened with any of the others.
LVG also made it clear that he never got what he wanted recruitment wise and I think we all can see it’s hard to implement what you want to do if you don’t have the right parts. By the end of his tenure when he started using Lingard in his midfield to drive the ball out it Started coming together for me and you could see it improving.
We bottled it and went for the worst choice in Jose setting us back even further. I think one More window and LVG would have got us there, especially when we were linked with players like Laporte, VVD, Sané, Jesus, Sanches and the likes.
Louis Van Melatonin.