United linked with van Gaal in the meeja

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They can give us Pep if they don't want him.

I'm not so sure. I'm wary of managers who treat their employment as a personal project - results sometimes become secondary to style of play. Wenger is, arguably, a case in point; similarly, perhaps Guardiola is as fond of tinkering & experimentation as he is of success.

Guardiola said he made a mistake by selecting Bastian Schweinsteiger alongside Toni Kroos in the defensive midfield.

Things improved after the break when Guardiola moved Schweinsteiger into the attacking midfield with Javi Martinez taking his place alongside Kroos.

"I told the players during the break that I had made a mistake," said Guardiola. "We knew how Real played, so we always wanted to have a lot of possession and players in midfield.

"We couldn't control the defensive midfield in the first half and didn't put in a good performance, because the coach made a mistake. The players ran and tried hard, as they always want to do, but we didn't have the right players in the right positions at the end of the day."
 
I'm not so sure. I'm wary of managers who treat their employment as a personal project - results sometimes become secondary to style of play. Wenger is, arguably, a case in point; similarly, perhaps Guardiola is as fond of tinkering & experimentation as he is of success.
I think that the absolute majority of posters here (not neccesarily you) would have loved for us to get Pep before yesterday's game. I don't think that their heavy loss yesterday changes much. I also think that Barca results were directly related to him.

He would be one of my top 3 choices (with Jose and Klopp) although I have to say that I am not a very big fan of useless posession. However there are other parts of his philosophy that I like. It would be really interesting to see how Bayern will react next year in UCL and see if yesterday's heave defeat was an one off or really Pep will struggle at other teams. Bundesliga would be more interesting too if BVB doesn't manage to get injured all their defenders and midfielders.
 
Oh yeah, I like him too, tbh.
 
I really thought Bayern will retain the CL title this season but I guess there are far too many strong teams for anyone to win it two times in a row. Are we the only ones that came up close to doing it by reaching the 2009 final? Granted, we were outplayed in the final, but practically we were 90 minutes away from making history.

Oh yeah, and if we think about it this way we were also bloody close to winning it several years on the trot:

2007: Went into the last semi-final leg against Milan with a lead - needed just a draw to go to the final
2008: Won it obiously
2009: Lost final
2010: Went out in the quarters, after leading and after a harsh red card
2011: Lost final again

What a period that was for us!
 
The problem is "this is the way I play" management is that you need the players to do it. It's fine transferring the best club side in Europe, as Bayern were at the time (arguably still are) and imposing a philosophy on them. It's a different kettle of fish when you have to design a squad to play to its strengths, which is what would be required here. The Wenger example is apt as I think where Arsenal have struggled has been in try to play a certain way and largely ignoring the capabilities of the squad and often you get years of square pegs trying to perform as if capable of going into round holes.

Here there's a heck of a lot of ground work to lay before we get to the level that Guardiola has become accustomed involving perhaps an extensive period of alteration and tactical pragmatism, which I'm not sure are his proven strengths. You need more to work with to impose his philosophy that what we can provide. If you try the Arsenal could well be a good example of what happens.
 
I really thought Bayern will retain the CL title this season but I guess there are far too many strong teams for anyone to win it two times in a row. Are we the only ones that came up close to doing it by reaching the 2009 final? Granted, we were outplayed in the final, but practically we were 90 minutes away from making history.
Ajax and Juve on the ninties were on final the year after they won it. So those two teams and us are the only three teams to be 90 minutes away from defending the UCL trophy.

It's funny cause almost every year I think that the champion will manage to defend it, but yet it has never happened. Which really shows how a strong and an unpredicted competition this is.
 
Oh yeah, and if we think about it this way we were also bloody close to winning it several years on the trot:

2007: Went into the last semi-final leg against Milan with a lead - needed just a draw to go to the final
2008: Won it obiously
2009: Lost final
2010: Went out in the quarters, after leading and after a harsh red card
2011: Lost final again

What a period that was for us!

Don't forget 1969. After some very dodgy refereeing decisions in the first leg (Fitzpatrick's sending off) we ended up with another iffy ref in the second leg. Law knocked the ball a good yard over the line before the Italian full-back scrambled it clear. The ref was close enough and the linesman must have seen it but the ref waved play on. First time I ever saw serious crowd trouble at Old Trafford for a European match that night.
 
Ajax and Juve on the ninties were on final the year after they won it. So those two teams and us are the only three teams to be 90 minutes away from defending the UCL trophy.

It's funny cause almost every year I think that the champion will manage to defend it, but yet it has never happened. Which really shows how a strong and an unpredicted competition this is.

I wonder if the defending champions are jaded (by relatively easily-won domestic success, by fatigue etc etc) by the time the CL gets to the latter stages. Taking the past 2 years as examples of this, it's hard to believe that Bayern are normally far superior to Barca, and (this time 'round) that Real are far superior to Bayern. In truth, they're all stellar teams, without much between them. Maybe defending the CL title is a step too far; the defending champions simply ran out of steam and enthusiaism. Besides, it's easier to raise your game if you're the one chasing glory rather than just cementing previous successes.
 
How they beat us I'll never know. We should have won both legs comfortably but events conspired against us in both. They also played a duff Lyon in the SF and then got schooled by Inter in the final.
They were the better team in 3 out of 4 halves of football.


Won the first leg comfortably :lol: we could barely get hold of the ball all game.
 
No news is good news for those who want Van Gaal I think, the pot was stirred a bit at the start of the week with the Giggs stuff but in my opinion it was probably just to shift some papers/generate clicks. I think most journalists will probably know that this is a done thing already.
 
I wonder if the defending champions are jaded (by relatively easily-won domestic success, by fatigue etc etc) by the time the CL gets to the latter stages. Taking the past 2 years as examples of this, it's hard to believe that Bayern are normally far superior to Barca, and (this time 'round) that Real are far superior to Bayern. In truth, they're all stellar teams, without much between them. Maybe defending the CL title is a step too far; the defendeing champions simply ran out of steam and enthusiaism.

Yeah, likely those are very important factors. Add to that, there are quite a few great teams in UCL and really regardless how good a team is I doubt that it has more than 20% chances to win it (putting things strtaight forward, if there are 5 teams with the same quality, each of them would have that probability of winning, of course such a thing doesn't exist but still there are other weaker teams who have some chances to win it). If we say that a team has 20% chance of winning UCL, winning two in a row has the probability of happening 4% which is very low.

Of course that football isn't maths and things are different on the pitch, but still the number of great teams who have realistic chances of winning it most of the years is pretty big (this year I would have counted Bayern, Madrid, Bartha, Chelsea, Dortmund) and there are always those stupid teams like Atletico who come from nowhere and make good surprises. Then there are other things like motivation (which I doubt can be as big as when you are chasing the trophy), luck, referees, injuries of players etc which make winning two in a row very unlikely.
 
Derby boss Steve McClaren sees Louis van Gaal excelling at United

Former Manchester United assistant manager Steve McClaren believes Louis van Gaal would excel in the Old Trafford hot seat.


The 52-year-old, currently in charge of Championship promotion-chasers Derby, faced Van Gaal during spells in Holland and Germany and is full of admiration for his counterpart.

McClaren said: "Without a doubt he has what it takes. He has a strange reputation. He's very forthright.

"He knows what he wants. He knows what he's doing and he's very disciplined. I've also heard that you either love him or you hate him - he's one of those characters.

"He is successful, he gets teams winning and he's experienced at that level. He can manage top players and win things at the top so he's a perfect fit for any of the top five clubs in Europe."

Van Gaal remains the long odds-on favourite to become United boss this summer, despite Ryan Giggs kicking off his interim tenure with a 4-0 victory over Norwich.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...laren-sees-louis-van-gaal-excelling-at-united

Steve speaking highly of LVG, who seems to have a lot of support in media this week.
 
The longer this goes on, the more I feel Woodward is thinking of appointing Giggsy to appease the players and the fans.
 
The longer this goes on, the more I feel Woodward is thinking of appointing Giggsy to appease the players and the fans.

Doubt it. He's not employed by the players and the fans, and his first and last job is to protect the Glazers investment. Woodward's Liverpool counterpart was interviewed on Sky a few days ago, and he talked about minimizing risk by appointing an experienced and proven manager. After being burned by Moyes, it would be astonishing if Woody wasn't thinking along similar lines.
 
Doubt it. He's not employed by the players and the fans, and his first and last job is to protect the Glazers investment. Woodward's Liverpool counterpart was interviewed on Sky a few days ago, and he talked about minimizing risk by appointing an experienced and proven manager. After being burned by Moyes, it would be astonishing if Woody wasn't thinking along similar lines.

You dont know with us. Ogden is as reliable as they come.
 
The longer this goes on, the more I feel Woodward is thinking of appointing Giggsy to appease the players and the fans.

More likely he was thinking Pep or Ancelotti's position might change on the back of CL success/failure.
 
He won't be appeasing the fans with Giggs, well at least not the vast majority.

My guess is that Woodward will be pushing for someone like van Gaal while Fergie is pushing for Giggs.

It's worrisome that I'd fancy Woodward to hire a more qualified manager than those with significant footballing backgrounds.
 
More likely he was thinking Pep or Ancelotti's position might change on the back of CL success/failure.

Naah, too far fetched. I dont believe for a second that we're waiting to see if Ancelotti gets sacked. Pep isnt even in question as Bayern arent a circus. There's no doubt there's a lot of support for Giggsy from within the club.
 
He said that Woodward is facing a lot of support for Giggsy to be appointed as the manager. If he says it, its more or less certain to be true.

I thought the article was just based on Neville's comments rather than anything from inside the club. Like when the BBC runs a story saying 'Robbie Savage says..." etc
 
Naah, too far fetched. I dont believe for a second that we're waiting to see if Ancelotti gets sacked. Pep isnt even in question as Bayern arent a circus. There's no doubt there's a lot of support for Giggsy from within the club.

Err Bayern swap managers fairly regularly and on the back of their insipid display last night and a whole host of rumours re Pep not happy with board interference etc you never know what could happen. I would say 100% the club will exhaust the avenue's of those 2 managers first. If we appointed Giggs and either of those came available over the summer we'd be more of a joke than we are now...Thats Woodward's thinking.
 
He won't be appeasing the fans with Giggs, well at least not the vast majority.

My guess is that Woodward will be pushing for someone like van Gaal while Fergie is pushing for Giggs.

It's worrisome that I'd fancy Woodward to hire a more qualified manager than those with significant footballing backgrounds.

Based entirely on Moyes' appointment thats just wrong. No one on here now wants any manager except a pep or Ancelotti. If Rogers was not at liverpool they wouldnt even entertain that....panic is a curious thing....
 
He won't be appeasing the fans with Giggs, well at least not the vast majority.

My guess is that Woodward will be pushing for someone like van Gaal while Fergie is pushing for Giggs.

It's worrisome that I'd fancy Woodward to hire a more qualified manager than those with significant footballing backgrounds.
Said this last summer.

If we stuck the Glazers in a room with no outside influence to decide Fergie's successor even they would have settled on the best option available.
 
Err Bayern swap managers fairly regularly and on the back of their insipid display last night and a whole host of rumours re Pep not happy with board interference etc you never know what could happen. I would say 100% the club will exhaust the avenue's of those 2 managers first. If we appointed Giggs and either of those came available over the summer we'd be more of a joke than we are now...Thats Woodward's thinking.

Its one thing to ensure that you totally exhaust the possibility of getting Pep and quite another to expect Bayern to sack the manager that won them the league in march(?), is in the domestic cup final and took them to the CL semi's.

I thought the article was just based on Neville's comments rather than anything from inside the club. Like when the BBC runs a story saying 'Robbie Savage says..." etc

Hopefully. Though I find it unlikely he's saying it just based on 1 ex player's view.
 
Said this last summer.

If we stuck the Glazers in a room with no outside influence to decide Fergie's successor even they would have settled on the best option available.

Wasnt Maureen the only one available?
 
Its one thing to ensure that you totally exhaust the possibility of getting Pep and quite another to expect Bayern to sack the manager that won them the league in march(?), is in the domestic cup final and took them to the CL semi's.



Hopefully. Though I find it unlikely he's saying it just based on 1 ex player's view.

They appointed Pep and pushed the winner of the treble out the door when by all accounts he wanted to stay!
 
If I gave a toss about Bayern what would frustrate me was the response. There was not shift in emphasis, it was the same, heads down, over-passing, patient, blunt build-up. It does make me wonder whether Guardiola would be much good in more challenging situations and clubs such as ours that perhaps require a more pragmatic tactical approach from time to time.

I think once they started playing in the second half, when it was all over admittedly, they still looked dangerous – zipping the ball about. Their defence is dodgy so reckon that'll be first on their shopping list this year and their final ball has been bad – against us too. I also think with both Ronaldo and Bale, Madrid are just too much going forward for anyone at the moment. Firm favourites, whatever that means in football.
 
nope he was pushed

I see. Bad but understandable that they went for perhaps the best manager around at the time long term over getting a year or 2 out of Heckneyes. ruthless but you have to be to be top dogs really.
 
I see. Bad but understandable that they went for perhaps the best manager around at the time long term over getting a year or 2 out of Heckneyes. ruthless but you have to be to be top dogs really.

Well I'd argue Pep has taken them backwards and the facts point to that so I would suggest if any man gets you a treble...keep hold of him. Its coming to something now where at several of these clubs you get the impression CL success or failure can get you fired. fergie wouldnt last too long with his 2 wins at some of these clubs!
 
Yeah, after the Moyes sacking last week we need something new now!
 
The longer this goes on, the more I feel Woodward is thinking of appointing Giggsy to appease the players and the fans.
If they give in to the players again, they will end up with big trouble. The players just want someone who will be easy on them.
 
Based entirely on Moyes' appointment thats just wrong. No one on here now wants any manager except a pep or Ancelotti. If Rogers was not at liverpool they wouldnt even entertain that....panic is a curious thing....
I think SAF still wants to have some control at the club, Giggs would be asking his advice all the time. LVG wouldn't.
 
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