Louis Van Gaal | 2015-16 Performance Thread

Van Gaal: The verdict

  • 1) Sack him now.

  • 2) Sack him at the end of the season.

  • 3) Let him see out his contract and part ways after that.

  • 4) Extend his contract.

  • Undecided (between 1 and 2).

  • Undecided (between 2 and 3).

  • Undecided (between 3 and 4, if things improve before his contract expires, extend).

Results are only viewable after voting.
Main criticism of him is that he is unwilling to change or adapt the formation to the opponent. This is similar to how Pep does things whereby they both want to dominate the other team imposing their style of play rather than adapt. I dont see the need for playing two DMs at a time I would rather see Schneiderlin and Herrera start some games against opposition like Newcastle. Also for the love of god I dont see why Mata is not playing as number ten, he has a pass in him and is a capable goalscorer.

I dont think he believes that we dont need a striker not too long ago he himself stated that we dont have a 20+ goal striker. I think he might be trying to take the pressure off of the club because no top level striker is available at the moment.
 
I can see Klopp at United next season if he doesn't at least challenge for the title this season.
 
golden_blunder said:
Not strictly true, aside from 03/04 and the following season, fergies teams average over 2 goals per game.

Moyes team averaged 1.67
Lvg last season dropped to 1.63 and this season so far 0.67

It's not just the players, it's something about the tactics or instructions that they receive from the coach
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I believe the players have been told no risks at all due to having Romero in goals. Will be interesting to see if DDG stays and starts how we start playing.
 
Vato said:
I can see Klopp at United next season if he doesn't at least challenge for the title this season.
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If it's another year like last year where we scrape top 4 or whatever then we should be having a rethink, unless the football dramatically improves. It's boring watching us play these days, boring, frustrating, just plain annoying.
 
golden_blunder said:
If by those 2 players being messi and ronaldo then I agree completely!
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Bale and another for me. Any two that can dribble past guys on a regular occurrence instead of watching us build to the final 3rd and watch play come backwards.
 
Vato said:
I can see Klopp at United next season if he doesn't at least challenge for the title this season.
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I'm with you. I think LVG needs a cup and a top 3 finish to keep his job.

Still only August though, and transfer market is still open.
 
It's a challenge signing the right players. Honestly can anyone really suggest a forward that realistically is available? Yes RVP went but both him and Falcao offered little to nothing last season. Same with CB, the stats say defensively we are ok and we are now better with the form of Shaw and the signing of Damien. IMO Smalling will be the best CB in the world in 2 years.

Only forwards and CB that can improve us that don't play for our rivals in the Prem play for Bayern, Real or Barca
 
Hamadovich86 said:
Main criticism of him is that he is unwilling to change or adapt the formation to the opponent. This is similar to how Pep does things whereby they both want to dominate the other team imposing their style of play rather than adapt. I dont see the need for playing two DMs at a time I would rather see Schneiderlin and Herrera start some games against opposition like Newcastle. Also for the love of god I dont see why Mata is not playing as number ten, he has a pass in him and is a capable goalscorer.

I dont think he believes that we dont need a striker not too long ago he himself stated that we dont have a 20+ goal striker. I think he might be trying to take the pressure off of the club because no top level striker is available at the moment.
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I agree with this. Rooney is just not going to contribute 20 or more goals, so they have to supplement them from somewhere else, like last season from midfield. Problem is that the way we are set up is not encouraging the midfield to score. We are going to end up relying on a kid, new to the PL, who has looked great at times and other times the pressure of playing for us is swallowing him up. Memphis should have been eased in, now he has the weight of the clubs expectations on him. To me that is not good management.

Also he took Darmian off because he was not contributing offensively, we presume. I just hope to god that it was a one off and not that he will put Tony V back in. That could undo all the good work the defence is doing in one swoop.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
I agree with this. Rooney is just not going to contribute 20 or more goals, so they have to supplement them from somewhere else, like last season from midfield. Problem is that the way we are set up is not encouraging the midfield to score. We are going to end up relying on a kid, new to the PL, who has looked great at times and other times the pressure of playing for us is swallowing him up. Memphis should have been eased in, now he has the weight of the clubs expectations on him. To me that is not good management.

Also he took Darmian off because he was not contributing offensively, we presume. I just hope to god that it was a one off and not that he will put Tony V back in. That could undo all the good work the defence is doing in one swoop.
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Almost feels like he's bending over backwards for Rooney, just to fit him into the side. Was the same last season. It was obvious we would be more functional and better with an actual midfielder there, and what happened when we actually started playing with midfielders? We started winning. Now Rooney claims he can bang in 25 goals and lead the line, yet hasn't scored in almost 15 hours of football for us. Just wishful thinking and LVG is still adamant we don't need a new striker? It's delusional. Rooney's threat up front is non existent.
 
Orton said:
If it's another year like last year where we scrape top 4 or whatever then we should be having a rethink, unless the football dramatically improves. It's boring watching us play these days, boring, frustrating, just plain annoying.
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And so you should, especially when you consider the money spent. Also, next season there'll be quite a few managers looking for a new job; Klopp, Ancelotti (:() and maybe even Pep. So it wouldn't be the worst time to do so.
 
3rdCarter said:
I guess you missed the part where he pulled out of the pedro deal and said we don't need anymore players.
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I tend not to try read into anything that he says as he is obviously trying to keep transfers in house. One week Pedro fitted our profile the next LVG said that at no time did he want him? He also said that we will always be in the market for players that are better than what we have. You can take what snippets you want and come to a conclusion. I am saying in my opinion we need 2 wide front men of real quality to challenge. I cannot think for the life of me that Ed and LVG don't know this and are not working on this. The problem being is as they I guess are finding is quite difficult. But it would be shocked if they didn't buy before the window is closed. If they don't then LVG deserves any criticism/praise on how these season plays out. For me we are 2 short for the league up top. Having Nani and RVP would put us in with a better shot so to sell them and not get adequate replacement would be very strange.
 
3rdCarter said:
Just realised how much sense this makes, rather than sticking with what worked last year he's gone back with his original ideas, he is still lacking that perfect no.10 though and now his main no.9 still hasn't found form.

just go 4141 with two advanced cm's, brought us the best results and football last year. Why shy away from it ?



I guess you missed the part where he pulled out of the pedro deal and said we don't need anymore players ?

Gosh the man isn't perfect. He's been questioned at every club he's been to when his methods started to look ineffective. Why should it be any different here ? Far too early to pull the plug but he needs to do better.

Yes LVG deserves support but not without critiques. If he thought the performance against newcastle was fantastic then he needs to raise his standards and realise that at manchester united we expect better.
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Critiscism is different from bashing. A lot of people are finding reasons to bash him for the smallest of reasons even. If januzaj plays they ask why is he being played when he doesn't do any thing. If he doesn't play he is destroying a young players (who could have become the next Giggs)career.

I'm sure a lot of people are waiting for Romero blind or mata to make a mistake for the whole 'I have been telling Blind/Romero/mata is no good from the beginning ' people to come out of hiding and call for the managers head

Lvg was hired to get us back to top. Last year it was to get back to top 4 and he achieved it. he has to get results and sometimes the wins will not be entertaining enough. In 3 years nobody will look at these games and remember how we played 'poorly'. All they will remember is the result. Nobody will remember the Leicester game and say we played well for 60 minutes. They remember the 5-3 score line. while critiscizm is allowed, a lot of posters all over the forum want him gone. I'm not even exaggerating here.

It isn't possible to make everyone happy. Some people want us to sell de gea and get it over with. Some want us to keep him for another year. Another group want us to sell him and buy benzema. As if benzema is just waiting for us to bid for him. Whatever we end up doing, a group of people will always find fault in those decisions.
 
A title challenge is the objective, even if at the moment, our squad/team doesn't look ready for a title challenge. The last thing we want is to just stagnate like Arsenal have in recent seasons.

If our season pans out like last season, I will firmly be in the van Gaal out camp. I'm on the fence at the moment.
 
Think this wave of "everything is his fault,he turning us in laughing stock,shambles etc" is going soon in snowball motion,so will try to stay away from this thread.

When appointed LvG said how he (due us being 7th 2 season ago) cant afford to focus on levels below first team.So everything went for us to get top 4.People here expect from him this and that,not me tho. You can say that i dont have any ambition or its not high enough for Manchester United fan but i dont expect from him to entertain me,nor i expect trophies.

What i expect is that he lays down foundation for future domination,ranks below first team to sync,so we could produce our own homegrown players,they wont need time adapt on way play etc. and we wont waste billions on players over hyped by Sky or media in general.If he fails in that,then even if he wins stuff or plays some magical football,when he resigns,we would have soft reset again,at least thats what i believe in.

I would expect trophies and magical football from manager after LvG,who ever that might be.This is not me,defending LvG,i am just sick and tired how shadow pokers use everything,does not matter if its true or not as some kind of beating stick,while in same time they are not brave enough to ask for his head.
 
LeftyBlaster said:
I wish people would stop with the " x number of signings away from this". It's not the signings that are holding us back. It's the way we are set up to play.
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If you carried on reading I wrote "that doesn't mean we can't win anything with this team" with the 1 or 2 players I wrote "from being a force again" meaning the glory days of how our club was and how it should be.

The way we setup to play is something I'm not a fan of but at the end of the day we can only trust the manager as he knows much more then all of us about tactics!
 
Had a conversation with a Bayern supporting mate of mine. Told him LvG really has a lot of problems beating teams that park the bus.
He told me that this was an issue at Bayern as well. He just seems to struggle in those kind of games.
 
Hamadovich86 said:
Main criticism of him is that he is unwilling to change or adapt the formation to the opponent. This is similar to how Pep does things whereby they both want to dominate the other team imposing their style of play rather than adapt. I dont see the need for playing two DMs at a time I would rather see Schneiderlin and Herrera start some games against opposition like Newcastle. Also for the love of god I dont see why Mata is not playing as number ten, he has a pass in him and is a capable goalscorer.

I dont think he believes that we dont need a striker not too long ago he himself stated that we dont have a 20+ goal striker. I think he might be trying to take the pressure off of the club because no top level striker is available at the moment.
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Bolded part doesn't ring true. He has played quite a few formations in his time here.
 
prath92 said:
I don't even know where to begin.......
Actually that's not true at all. I know exactly where to begin

No one has lost any identity. We were always a team against whom teams would come hoping for a draw. What's different now is teams improved. Players like cabaye play in teams like crystal palace for instance. Teams are more financially well set and invest in players that they wouldn't have attracted in the past. Newcastle have for instance just appointed a manager who once managed England and was asst to Fergie. To expect the current Newcastle team to play as bad as John carvers team is stupid.
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I see you don't know where to begin because you didn't say anything apart from teams are better now, c'mon that's a poor effort. If we don't do anything we are pegged for 4th and that should be more than enough to get LVG the sack.
 
I wonder if this dull play is a temporary tactic to win points at all cost, while we rebuild.

Van Gaal is leaving after next season, it has to be tempting to do whatever it takes to win, enjoyment be damned.
 
So LVG is proven wrong in 30 minutes where Pedro scores and assists a goal. Wonder if he will admit hes wrong on this one. 22 mil was a very reasonable price for what he brings.
 
MrSingh2002 said:
So LVG is proven wrong in 30 minutes where Pedro scores and assists a goal. Wonder if he will admit hes wrong on this one. 22 mil was a very reasonable price for what he brings.
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Given our first-hand experience with Di Maria, you would think people would know better than to pass a verdict after 3 games, let alone a solitary half of football. Can't argue about the price tag being reasonable though.
 
MrSingh2002 said:
So LVG is proven wrong in 30 minutes where Pedro scores and assists a goal. Wonder if he will admit hes wrong on this one. 22 mil was a very reasonable price for what he brings.
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VG would probably bring the worst out of pedro, he's a negative manager, over complicates things, and thinks what we saw yesterday was brilliant
 
jem said:
Given our first-hand experience with Di Maria, you would think people would know better than to pass a verdict after 3 games, let alone a solitary half of football. Can't argue about the price tag being reasonable though.
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Fair point. We can reconvene this conversation later in the season.
 
Changing the players in my opinion wouldn't change an awful lot with our attacking play. The players don't seem to be allowed to use their own game intelligence to express themselves. For this reason we could possibly have Ronaldo and Neymar but if they're unable to figure the opposition out for themselves with their own initiative we could have the same results. Im not anti LVG at all and he has many qualities. Im just pro winning.
 
Ole240599 said:
I see you don't know where to begin because you didn't say anything apart from teams are better now, c'mon that's a poor effort. If we don't do anything we are pegged for 4th and that should be more than enough to get LVG the sack.
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Well we were in the same situation (teams playing United hoping to nick a point) except that teams are stronger than they were 10 years back. meaning our identity is still the same

Ah you probably won't understand. You are hoping that we end up 4th and LvG gets the sack.
 
MrSingh2002 said:
Changing the players in my opinion wouldn't change an awful lot with our attacking play. The players don't seem to be allowed to use their own game intelligence to express themselves. For this reason we could possibly have Ronaldo and Neymar but if they're unable to figure the opposition out for themselves with their own initiative we could have the same results. Im not anti LVG at all and he has many qualities. Im just pro winning.
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Hell he thinks what Herrera has done for united, warrants him to be benched, because he is positive, so what would change with more players? To be honest the money he has spent, and this
is the best he can do? And he thinks hey let's play our entire CM so deep, our CB's get forward more
 
Oneunited26 said:
Hell he thinks what Herrera has done for united, warrants him to be benched, because he is positive, so what would change with more players? To be honest the money he has spent, and this
is the best he can do? And he thinks hey let's play our entire CM so deep, our CB's get forward more
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Herrera is also a CM. you are suggesting we make the team more defensive by removing Memphis or januzaj and putting Herrera ?
 
prath92 said:
Herrera is also a CM. you are suggesting we make the team more defensive by removing Memphis or januzaj and putting Herrera ?
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Herrera actually gets forward and does score goals, our most creative midfielder last season. VG should be playing the 4141 system that clicked so well, and give Herrera the freedom to attack and assist
 
I am not sure, but i think there was a piece or an interview where he said that he coaches the players to use their brain with and without the ball and not just blindly tyy a skill or pass without it being beneficial to the all round game.

I think it might be one of the reasons that the football feels complicated, slow and the players seem out of ideas. He is a task master and sometimes very very strict with the way he manages the players. I fear he will most probably push Herrera out of the club with his tactics who by far is our most creative player in midfield.

Things are not looking rosy right now on and off the pitch and LVG has to take the the majority of the blame for it. If we don't get a striker or at the very fecking least get Hernandez to start a couple of matches, we might run in to some trouble.
 
so does anyone still believe that lvg actually pulled interest last minute ? For his own sake I hope that is a lie.

Pedro off to flying start, giving chelsea some ooh what's that pace AND creativity.
 
Vato said:
I can see Klopp at United next season if he doesn't at least challenge for the title this season.
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If he gets the rest of this transfer window wrong and Rooney carries on in the form he is in then LVG is a ticking time bomb IMO.
 
I still really like Louis, once Fergie walked upstairs, it was going to always be a horrible ride unless we got Jose , but we went for Moyes and kept certain players we should have sold.

For me though Louis biggest mistake was letting RVP go in favour of Rooney or being that short sighted he didn't go out and spend mega money to replace him, for me, this could define Louis tenure if Rooney doesn't buck his ideas up.
 
Random Porto fan:
Já não chega levar com o Lopetegui, e tu ainda falas no van Gaal

Preferia o Co Adriaanse
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"It's bad enough dealing with Lopetegui and you're talking about van Gaal

I'd rather have Co Adriaanse [back]"


His reputation certainly isn't what it once was.
 
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