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.
Varun said:
Yes, we do not score enough to win trophies, I agree about that. We are quite a boring side to watch too. If I was a neutral, I doubt I'd watch Manchester United play.

All of that said, tonight was nothing like that. We were fast, we created chances, we looked positive and entertaining to watch. The finishing was horrendous though and we didnt score.
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Those things were true for the first 20 and maybe the last 20. There was a big slow paced gap in the middle where we reverted to type.
 
Utd 0-0 West Ham
Leicester 1-1 Utd
Utd 0-0 PSV
Watford 1-2 Utd
Utd 2-0 WBA
Utd 1-0 CSKA
Palace 0-0 Utd
Utd 0-0 Boro
Utd 0-0 City
CSKA 1-1 Utd

7 goals scored in 10 games and failing to score in 5 of those games. I just can't defend this. City and Leicester are the only real threats in that list of games too.
 
CG1010 said:
Either his philosophy is outdated/not working in England/players are too thick to grasp it.
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Interesting point. The frustrating thing for me is the fact we all know how each game is going to pan out. We will dominate possession, opposition sits back lets have the ball, they create the better chances on the counter attack. Around the 75 minute mark he finally makes the substitution we have all been crying out for and the team continues to pass the ball around like we are 3-0 up. Oh and then Mike goes close from a corner and we have a bit of hope. Rinse and repeat.

Tactically, he needs to freshen it up you always hear about teams been 'worked out' after a couple of months I genuinely think that's what has happened. There is nothing unpredictable about this team. If Fellaini plays we are more direct, if he doesn't play its the same old shit.

He let RVP, Hernandez, Januzaj, Di Maria and James Wilson leave the club, all of them struggled to adapt to the philosophy. The attackers we have at the club all seem to be devoured of confidence. Surely he is the problem?
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
Well yes there was attack attack attack with mild boos everytime we went back, very loud boos at the final whistle.
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Yeah, can't say I like that but people pay good money to watch and it's not like it's the odd match under VG.
 
The Wolfsburg game is crucial for him now.

Up until now results have actually been ok, although todays wasn't very good, even if performances have been shit. He's been able to cling to the fact that in that sense we are doing alright.

However on Tuesday night if we're knocked out it leaves him with no excuses. I really feel like a win in Germany could turn the season around with the boost it would give us. However if we lose it'll be the beginning of the end for him.
 
Sultan said:
You obviously missed West Ham should have scored at least 3 goals.
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No I didn't. And at least 3? Come off it - so are you saying West Ham should have won that game? They hit the post twice yes - but once from a corner, once after a mistake from de Gea - and then Blind played us into trouble for the Moses shot when de Gea did come to the rescue. Two of those chances are down to individual errors which are difficult to blame anyone but those men for. We did not look like conceding otherwise.

I'm talking in terms of performance level and application... we played all the football, made things happen and looked lively from start to finish unlike recent games. We were superior to West Ham in every single department, but our players just did not have enough quality in front of goal. That is the reason we did not win today.

Are Fellaini, Martial, Mata etc all sat in the dressing room now cursing LVG under their breath for missing their chances? I highly doubt it.

The lack of quality/cover in the squad though is the issue, and that IS the manager's problem. I just fail to see how people can blame LVG/philosophy/mentality for today's result.
 
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acnumber9 said:
Those things were true for the first 20 and maybe the last 20. There was a big slow paced gap in the middle where we reverted to type.
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Pretty much though I think it was more than just the last 20. But do you not agree that we created more than enough in those 40mins to score and win the game? I'm not claiming we put on some exhibition of attacking football for 90mins. Simply saying that we created more than enough to score and tonight isnt on Van Gaal at all. Tonight wasnt like our other 0-0s.
 
Since he's come, we've sold over 10 attackers and brought in five. Of those five, two have left. He only has himself to blame.
 
Varun said:
Its more than enough to win. Not scoring even 1 of them is all on the players and not the manager. Martial, Mata and Lingard didnt even hit the target, ridiculous.
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But isn't that a problem? We don't have clinical players, we know this, so the fact that we only really crazy 3 clear cut chances and not that many half chances otherwise (despite having 20 shots) isn't exactly a solid strategy.

acnumber9 said:
Those things were true for the first 20 and maybe the last 20. There was a big slow paced gap in the middle where we reverted to type.
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Yup, were slow and plodding for large swathes of the game. Just because we gave it ago after an hour doesn't mean it was a completely different performance.
 
Things are getting bad now, think more and more people will start to turn against him.

I can't defend the decision to pick Fellaini today.
 
Varun said:
Pretty much though I think it was more than just the last 20. But do you not agree that we created more than enough in those 40mins to score and win the game? I'm not claiming we put on some exhibition of attacking football for 90mins. Simply saying that we created more than enough to score and tonight isnt on Van Gaal at all. Tonight wasnt like our other 0-0s.
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Perhaps but we'd then have to factor in the fact that West Ham had just as many opportunities to score too. This despite the fact they had about half as much of the ball and our defence supposedly being so tight. If we showed the same urgency earlier we may actually score before the ref blows his whistle and we wouldn't have to talk up decent opportunities as great chances. Part of the problem is the pressure the players must feel every time they do get a half chance.
 
Varun said:
I agree with all of that. Tonight wasnt one of our usual 0-0s though and to criticise him for tonight is absurd. We created more than enough to score.
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Any criticism he gets will not be just for tonight. It will be for a season and a half of frustration after failing to inspire any consistent form from any of the attacking players who have played under him at Utd. For the money he has had it is just not good enough, although i agree attributing blame from game to game is pointless.

But overall, we have been regularly impotent, unimaginative and boring under his management, and no matter who he has up front he has failed miserably to do anything about it. So that is what he deserves criticism for, and rightly so in my view.
 
I've made my mind up about him. Thank you very much for a job well done, but right now I am looking forward to our next era and manager and the sooner this thing with LVG ends the better. Hopefully this summer, but I reckon it will be next.

I don't want to watch pragmatic football, I don't want to watch us at home keeping possession for no reason and I don't want to watch united crossing from deep to the big fella up top. No thanks.
 
With us creating so few chances it was always only a question when we would hit a patch of bad finishing and our luck would go away. At least DDG and the defense also let not goals in atm which saves us time and time again atm.
 
I think with what we had out there today we could have been managed by someone created from the seeds of Fergie and Pep, birthed by Wonder Woman and it wouldn't have made much difference. Midfield doesn't have enough drive and we only have one truly dangerous forward, none of the front 4'are real goal scorers though.
 
acnumber9 said:
Perhaps but we'd then have to factor in the fact that West Ham had just as many opportunities to score too. This despite the fact they had about half as much of the ball and our defence supposedly being so tight. If we showed the same urgency earlier we may actually score before the ref blows his whistle and we wouldn't have to talk up decent opportunities as great chances. Part of the problem is the pressure the players must feel every time they do get a half chance.
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Exactly. The manager shouldn't need the crowd getting on his back to release the shackles a bit and allow the team to play more freely. We did that in the final fifteen minutes and had we done that from the beginning we would have won the game. It's not even as if all that pointless possession had stopped West Ham from having 4-5 good chances.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
But isn't that a problem? We don't have clinical players, we know this, so the fact that we only really crazy 3 clear cut chances and not that many half chances otherwise (despite having 20 shots) isn't exactly a solid strategy.



Yup, were slow and plodding for large swathes of the game. Just because we gave it ago after an hour doesn't mean it was a completely different performance.
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Cmon AN, we didnt score at all. Considering the quality of chances that MArtial, Fellaini, Mata and Lingard got, that's criminal. Could we create more? Yes, ofcourse. We created nothing for a 45min spell in between. Did the amount of chances we created in the other 45mins enough to score atleast a couple? Yes, ofcourse.
 
acnumber9 said:
Perhaps but we'd then have to factor in the fact that West Ham had just as many opportunities to score too. This despite the fact they had about half as much of the ball and our defence supposedly being so tight. If we showed the same urgency earlier we may actually score before the ref blows his whistle and we wouldn't have to talk up decent opportunities as great chances. Part of the problem is the pressure the players must feel every time they do get a half chance.
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They did have great opportunities, we should not ignore that at all. It was one of our worse defensive performances and we were lucky to come out of that with a clean sheet. The chances we created werent just decent though and there's no bigging it up when I say they were great chances. You gotta finish those.

I dont agree with the last sentence either. Those are split second moments. No one could have LVG and his pressure pop into their heads in that split second. Its you, the ball, the goal and the opposition GK. That's it.
 
PSingh said:
He let RVP, Hernandez, Januzaj, Di Maria and James Wilson leave the club, all of them struggled to adapt to the philosophy. The attackers we have at the club all seem to be devoured of confidence. Surely he is the problem?
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No, most of them struggle to be good enough for their current shitty little club.
 
I've been a big critic of Van Gaal but we can't blame him for today.

If we don't get through in the Champions League this week then yes he can feck off.
 
Varun said:
Cmon AN, we didnt score at all. Considering the quality of chances that MArtial, Fellaini, Mata and Lingard got, that's criminal. Could we create more? Yes, ofcourse. We created nothing for a 45min spell in between. Did the amount of chances we created in the other 45mins enough to score atleast a couple? Yes, ofcourse.
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Yes, one of them should have scored, but none of them are proven goalscorers... Which is kinda the point. We're relying on irregular goalscorers to be clinical when the moments eventually arise.
 
apotheosis said:
Any criticism he gets will not be just for tonight. It will be for a season and a half of frustration after failing to inspire any consistent form from any of the attacking players who have played under him at Utd. For the money he has had it is just not good enough, although i agree attributing blame from game to game is pointless.

But overall, we have been regularly impotent, unimaginative and boring under his management, and no matter who he has up front he has failed miserably to do anything about it. So that is what he deserves criticism for, and rightly so in my view.
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I cannot agree with criticism for last season. It was a successful one for us where the absolute focus was on getting into the CL places and we did so.

Much more is expected this season both in terms of results and performances and rightly so. So far, the performances have left a lot to desire and I'd be among the first in the queue to say we should be creating far more, should be entertaining far more, should be taking more risks and should be scoring more goals.

I wont say any of that bar the goals bit for tonight though which is all I'm arguing about. Anyone that wishes to ignore what happened tonight and blame him for the season so far wont get arguments from me as I'd agree with quite a bit of what he'd be likely to say.
 
Dr. Funkenstein said:
No, most of them struggle to be good enough for their current shitty little club.
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Hernandez is scoring for fun in the bundesliga which is easily just as competitive as the "great premier league". RVP still would have done a job, Januzaj would have done no worse than Lingard/Memphis are doing. Di Maria heart/head was never in it so isn't a miss.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Yes, one of them should have scored, but none of them are proven goalscorers... Which is kinda the point. We're relying on irregular goalscorers to be clinical when the moments eventually arise.
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This will sidetrack the thread badly but lets agree not to debate it further than you naming these clinical proven goalscorers that were available this summer who we didnt pursue. I'll leave it at that.
 
Varun said:
This will sidetrack the thread badly but lets agree not to debate it further than you naming these clinical proven goalscorers that were available this summer who we didnt pursue. I'll leave it at that.
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Well we did let go of Hernandez... And I'm sure our scouting departments could find some given the fact that we got quality in an unknown like Martial. But yeah, we'll defer.
 
is he sacked yet?

If not then WHY not?

You have to question United's ambition. Is the club really satified with our progress to money spent by him
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Loads? We had about 2 or 3 good chances
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Martial in the first half when their defender dived in the way, Fellaini tap in, Martial from Depay's good play, Lingard from a set piece or something when it dropped back and he blasted wide, Mata after that good bit of intricate passing shooting wide on his right foot, Schweinsteiger blast just over. And most of those missed the target.

That's off memory, there were likely others too, we took 21 shots and let's face it we're not the type of team that bombards the opposition with shots, we try to get into good positions first.
 
We definitely need to bring in a match winner in January however we can. That is the only way we can win the title. This season could have been so easy for us if we had not put all our hopes on our captain.
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
is he sacked yet?

If not then WHY not?

You have to question United's ambition. Is the club really satified with our progress to money spent by him
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His building a team for the next manager. He's a selfless guy, our LvG.
 
It's going to be really ugly if we don't qualify on Tuesday. The board would give him a ton of money to spend in January to ensure we get top 4 but doubt they'd keep him around for next season.
 
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