I do recall something like that from that dire period he had. it was revealed after the event though
Louis van Gaal's interview with BBC
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Are any of the top club focused more on the football side of things than the commercial any more?
We do just need sort out our scouting though. It’s been abysmal for absolutely years.
We do just need sort out our scouting though. It’s been abysmal for absolutely years.
Would love to know how our transfer windows were structured/signings identified under LVG. Because we signed utter shite on the whole under him.
He must have been drunk when he said this.
As always, absolutely deluded and terrible personality.
Though we didn't have much to choose from after poch chose to stay after Fergie dinner but handing out new contract in january and not on the same page in the summer in terms of transfers was a classic clueless man's decision.
He just saw is for big games against attacking teams I think.
His style wasn't attacking and definitely wasn't exciting in big or small games or not. He wants to sell the idea he played better football than what's Ole doing now but people are hypocrite and didn't like it. He's deluded.
I read this earlier and thought it was a really interesting piece. Unfortunately we are all aware of how lacking we are on the scouting side and how poorly we handled VG's exit.
One thing that is true and hopefully makes some people rethink how they want us to play, is that not a huge amount has actually changed since Jose left tactically. Pogba has moved forward, players are happier and apparently taking more risks but structurally there's not a lot different. Half the job is mental, so hats off to Ole on that front but I really hope we aren't planning to be a counter attacking and defensive team moving forwards. I don't mind it in a tough away game if necessary but I do think we need to evolve a bit to compete with the best clubs in Europe.
One thing that is true and hopefully makes some people rethink how they want us to play, is that not a huge amount has actually changed since Jose left tactically. Pogba has moved forward, players are happier and apparently taking more risks but structurally there's not a lot different. Half the job is mental, so hats off to Ole on that front but I really hope we aren't planning to be a counter attacking and defensive team moving forwards. I don't mind it in a tough away game if necessary but I do think we need to evolve a bit to compete with the best clubs in Europe.
Speaks a lot of truth there.
He needed better players to make his system work, and Solksjaer needs better players if he is to move away from the deep back line and counter attack setup, which we have moved back towards in recent games.
He needed better players to make his system work, and Solksjaer needs better players if he is to move away from the deep back line and counter attack setup, which we have moved back towards in recent games.
I quite liked Van Gaal. The team he inherited and his initial misjudging of their quality with 2 utterly shoddy summer transfer windows cost him the job imo. Wasn't helped by the structure. Just too many costly decisions there.
I kind of liked the team he'd put together by the end, Rashford and Martial up front, Smalling and Blind in defence. Our midfield was muck I guess.
I kind of liked the team he'd put together by the end, Rashford and Martial up front, Smalling and Blind in defence. Our midfield was muck I guess.
I get the impression most managers will have an idea of players they like and the scouting team will work around that, highlighting profiles they have been tracking and offering in depth analysis of temperament, family situations etc etc.
With us, it seems like VG had zero support on this front so the players we signed were ones he suggested. A manager will know which players he likes but he doesn't have time to assess them properly. In hindsight, I actually think he brought us exciting and good players overall but sadly the biggest names didn't work out (as they haven't post SAF)
Apparently playing with the ball in opponents half is attacking mentality and attacking football and playing in your own half without the ball and waiting for mistakes is defensive football in most of European circles where possession is considered as attacking.
Though ole and ohelan doesn't have a fix style yet, they just set out in different style against different style opponents. I bet with the team we have got we will not attack much against any top team in the world who plays on possession with the ball, and that's what van gaal was talking about.
The only manager so far that tried to tackle the problem we have when trying to play possession football with the opposition lying deep.
Fell asleep under the bus driver too.
Except we didn't do that under him. We were just possessing the ball in our own half. This stat just proves it and denies his silly claims in such quotes :
Just makes it sound like how the club put its burden all on Sir Alex's shoulders and how amazingly he handled it all and since his retirement the club is all over the place, a disappointing manager time after time, hopefully Ole is the Saf we need.
What if Ole and co aren't capable of anything more than being defensive and counter-attacking? Would you still trust them to take over?
I have these doubts myself. I'm not sure I can say I trust them fully atm.
I agree with you, I certainly hope this is not Ole's actual philosophy.
Ole won't be the new SAF. We had two managerial greats fail to make a mark in major competitions. I always find it laughable when someone calls LVG and Mourinho tactically outdated (both won major trophies with their previous clubs and are serial winners), as if they had one of the best teams in the world that was not being used correctly. They got about par for the players they had, none of our squads have been fit to compete at the top level.
Of course, you can criticize their recruitment, but then what other club puts all the recruitment of the 1st team on the manager? Someone who's scouting will be primitive, often seeking out former players, someone who will never have time to do the work a scout does.
You are right that SAF was a truly special man. He managed the footballing side of one of the biggest clubs in the world by himself.
I guess we will see this summer should he be kept on - I do think he will stick with our current setup and just buy better players. Can't imagine he wouldn't stick to what he knows and obviously trusts.
It’s a great interview even if Van Gaal, as he himself, is always Van Gaal (‘it may be my truth, but I always tell the truth’). Of course most of us watching didn’t understand that second level teekee-taakaa was really exciting, and that direct and fast football like (Mourinho, Solskjær (and Ferguson, really)) is all ‘parking the bus.
But I find his verdict on the people he worked with much more interesting than those he hasn’t worked with (lately). And certainly an argument for hiring something like a Director of Football. It isn’t run like a fooball club he says, and he should know. He didn’t relish being the only cock in the crib, he rather seemed frustrated by being surrounded by bankers and too few who knew football.
But I find his verdict on the people he worked with much more interesting than those he hasn’t worked with (lately). And certainly an argument for hiring something like a Director of Football. It isn’t run like a fooball club he says, and he should know. He didn’t relish being the only cock in the crib, he rather seemed frustrated by being surrounded by bankers and too few who knew football.
I fail to comprehend why he wants to criticise his successors when his team literally only scored one goal more than 17th placed Sunderland in his last season.
He played youngsters and I loved our attack with Rashford, Lingard and Martial - now of offensive backbone. But he played tons of players that were nowhere near good enough. McNair, Love, Blackett, CBJ.
He spent loads of money - according to Transfermarkt €351million - on 12 players (including Falcao loan) and at best three has been a success (Martial, Herrera, Shaw). Not only was his/the club under his rule, bad a spending money. We were terrible when selling. Nani €6mil (28 yrs), Rafael €3mil (wtf) (25 yrs), Persie €6mil (31 yrs), Evans €8mil (27 yrs). It was abysmal.
Our possession based style was a good idea on paper but the players were afraid of losing the ball, shoot on goal, in general afraid of being creative, so the possession was never used for anything other than sideways and backwards passes - but apparently that's offensive and entertaining football to LvG?
I don't feel the same love towards his personality as a lot do. He was arrogant compared to the output of his work at United, and I really think his United was the most boring one. Sure Moyes' United made you want to punch somebody, anybody, in the throat out of pure frustration, but at least he wasn't an insomnia cure like the games under LvG.
The club did treat him like dirt towards the end - that I admit.
He played youngsters and I loved our attack with Rashford, Lingard and Martial - now of offensive backbone. But he played tons of players that were nowhere near good enough. McNair, Love, Blackett, CBJ.
He spent loads of money - according to Transfermarkt €351million - on 12 players (including Falcao loan) and at best three has been a success (Martial, Herrera, Shaw). Not only was his/the club under his rule, bad a spending money. We were terrible when selling. Nani €6mil (28 yrs), Rafael €3mil (wtf) (25 yrs), Persie €6mil (31 yrs), Evans €8mil (27 yrs). It was abysmal.
Our possession based style was a good idea on paper but the players were afraid of losing the ball, shoot on goal, in general afraid of being creative, so the possession was never used for anything other than sideways and backwards passes - but apparently that's offensive and entertaining football to LvG?
I don't feel the same love towards his personality as a lot do. He was arrogant compared to the output of his work at United, and I really think his United was the most boring one. Sure Moyes' United made you want to punch somebody, anybody, in the throat out of pure frustration, but at least he wasn't an insomnia cure like the games under LvG.
The club did treat him like dirt towards the end - that I admit.
Post-Fergie, the only time we have looked dominant so far has been under LVG that run with Carrick-Fellaini-Herrera-Mata-Young-Rooney..it was fun
Yeah, part on Solskjaer is just nonsense. Van Gaal thinks more possession means you are more attacking, that's why he think ManUtd park the bus under Ole. It's easy to see how different the set up is from Jose's time, starting position is higher, few attackers stays higher up the pitch to initiate counter attacks.
Overall it's a decent interview.
"Di Maria says it was my problem. I played him in every attacking position. You can check that. He never convinced me in any of those positions. He could not deal with the continuous pressure on the ball in the Premier League. That was his problem," says Van Gaal.
I liked LVG a lot and I believe his side of the story more than Di Maria's.
I liked LVG a lot and I believe his side of the story more than Di Maria's.
Took over a disaster from Moyes where the boys couldn’t even pass the ball and there was no team structure. He instituted that and only failed because the squad was shit and Woodward had spent ages chasing galacticos who never intended to come.
If he had only stayed for one season, his tenure would've been a success. He achieved his objectives in the first season but then he took it apart the following season.
Funnily enough, I would say the same for Mourinho. If we'd moved on from Mourinho last summer, his tenure would've been quite clearly successful. But he also destroyed his work before he left.
Ultimately, that's not their fault. They both stayed true to their character and their previous records. The fault lies with the club & Woodward for not realising when to move on. The club (and the fan base) seems obsessed with the idea of finding another Ferguson and get besotted by whoever's in charge, so that will always be hindrance in making rational decisions on moving on from managers at the correct time.
Funnily enough, I would say the same for Mourinho. If we'd moved on from Mourinho last summer, his tenure would've been quite clearly successful. But he also destroyed his work before he left.
Ultimately, that's not their fault. They both stayed true to their character and their previous records. The fault lies with the club & Woodward for not realising when to move on. The club (and the fan base) seems obsessed with the idea of finding another Ferguson and get besotted by whoever's in charge, so that will always be hindrance in making rational decisions on moving on from managers at the correct time.
He's as nuts as they come. Basically saying this -
Interviewer 'So Louis. Why was the football so terrible at not only Utd but Bayern before that?'
Louis 'Nonsense. We played some of the best football ever seen in my own opinion.'
Interviewer 'So Louis. Why was the football so terrible at not only Utd but Bayern before that?'
Louis 'Nonsense. We played some of the best football ever seen in my own opinion.'
This. The ugly, toxic shadow of Mourinho hung over the club even before he was hired.
My problem with LVG was that he got rid of most of our attacking players and all he brought in were mostly defensive players. Then he took our best scorer and played him in midfield and our best passer/crosser and played him as a striker. Then he complained that we don't have a 20 goal scorer on the team. Duh, we do but you are playing as a central midfielder and the other 20 goal striker you sold
I'm not sure how anyone could have believed that in the first place.
He must have been drunk when he said this.
As always, absolutely deluded and terrible personality.
He completely avoided talking about buying Memphis, Morgan, Bastian and Darmian as well. He had money to burn and he wasted it.
But some points are true. Ole is currently playing defensive counter attacking football indeed, but that could be only due to a lack of personnel and injuries. His initial games suggested a slightly different approach.
He does make some good points. The main problem is that he is not in any position to make them in the first place as he is equally culpable along with the rest. Assume his admiration of City is due to his obsession over possession football.
I agree with his point on the need for a technical/sporting director who can make the final judgement on the players that we need in consultation with the manager. Having two investment bankers making decisions on the football side of things is not ideal, and it shows in our scattergun approach to transfers so far. The handling of players contracts also quite resembles Arsenal like buffoonery. We should have a much better squad for the amount of money we have spent in the last 6 seasons. ~£680m gross and ~£480m net are no meager amounts. And then we have our outrageous wage bill which is ridiculous for a squad of our quality.
Another point I agree with is our style of football under Ole. It is better than Jose but still very defensive at times, especially against bigger teams. However, you have to give Ole a pass on that as he has had very little time to implement all his ideas; plus, the squad is lacking in quality for us to be a dominant side for majority of the games. The judgement about the style of play has to be left to next season. It's all about getting to the top 4 now.
Not lets come to the delusions. He complains about the age of the squad but it was him who proceeded to sell our younger players, players with pace, in Welbeck, Nani and Zaha. He let go Jonny Evans, who is very good on the ball, and replaced him with Marcus fecking Rojo. He complains about age of the squad but signed totally past it older players in Schweinsteiger & Falcao. He bought Schneiderlin when we already had a better player in Herrera. £250m was spent under him in seasons when the transfer fees weren't as bat shit as they are today.
Less said on the style of play the better. His stint had the most boring games I have seen United play since I started following them. There is nothing wrong with having a philosophy. However, the best managers are those who can tweak it to get the best out of the squad and resources available to them. You cannot have a poor quality player like Blackett playing LCB just because he is left footed.
At the end of the day, these are egomaniacs with a very firm belief in themselves, their philosophies & their abilities. I guess that is what makes them highly successful, but is also a cause of their eventual downfall. It makes them blind of their deficiencies. In football, or as in any other job or business, you need to constantly reinvent yourself. Sir Alex did, and that is why he was able to maintain his success for so long. And even his transfers and style of play showed weakness towards the end.
His departure was poorly handled by Eddie and that gives him reasons to be miffed with us. I actually quite liked Louie. He didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth as Moyes or Mourinho did. Think he could have been a great appointment as the director of the academy. I have found that younger players who came through are not as technically sound & lack passing skills. He could have definitely improved us in those aspects.
Another point I agree with is our style of football under Ole. It is better than Jose but still very defensive at times, especially against bigger teams. However, you have to give Ole a pass on that as he has had very little time to implement all his ideas; plus, the squad is lacking in quality for us to be a dominant side for majority of the games. The judgement about the style of play has to be left to next season. It's all about getting to the top 4 now.
Not lets come to the delusions. He complains about the age of the squad but it was him who proceeded to sell our younger players, players with pace, in Welbeck, Nani and Zaha. He let go Jonny Evans, who is very good on the ball, and replaced him with Marcus fecking Rojo. He complains about age of the squad but signed totally past it older players in Schweinsteiger & Falcao. He bought Schneiderlin when we already had a better player in Herrera. £250m was spent under him in seasons when the transfer fees weren't as bat shit as they are today.
Less said on the style of play the better. His stint had the most boring games I have seen United play since I started following them. There is nothing wrong with having a philosophy. However, the best managers are those who can tweak it to get the best out of the squad and resources available to them. You cannot have a poor quality player like Blackett playing LCB just because he is left footed.
At the end of the day, these are egomaniacs with a very firm belief in themselves, their philosophies & their abilities. I guess that is what makes them highly successful, but is also a cause of their eventual downfall. It makes them blind of their deficiencies. In football, or as in any other job or business, you need to constantly reinvent yourself. Sir Alex did, and that is why he was able to maintain his success for so long. And even his transfers and style of play showed weakness towards the end.
His departure was poorly handled by Eddie and that gives him reasons to be miffed with us. I actually quite liked Louie. He didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth as Moyes or Mourinho did. Think he could have been a great appointment as the director of the academy. I have found that younger players who came through are not as technically sound & lack passing skills. He could have definitely improved us in those aspects.
There's some honesty and truth in what he says but it comes from a bitter place, and always with bullshit alongside it. Knocking the way Ole is having us play as well, when it's the first bit of respite from the mostly dour football we've had from 3 managers in 5 and a half years. He's a tool.
Don't know why people always say the sacking was in bad taste. Couldn't give a shite personally. It wasn't even that bad.
Fans paying lots of hard earned money to see the shit he served up was in bad taste. Him constantly disrespecting the fans by badmouthing the club (even if true) is in bad taste. Him constantly saying he had us playing well is in bad taste (and disrespectful again). Him constantly saying how hard he had it is in bad taste. The guy only had Moyes to better, loads of money and a great fanbase that gave him more time than he would've gotten at a more ruthless club.
Don't know why people always say the sacking was in bad taste. Couldn't give a shite personally. It wasn't even that bad.
Fans paying lots of hard earned money to see the shit he served up was in bad taste. Him constantly disrespecting the fans by badmouthing the club (even if true) is in bad taste. Him constantly saying he had us playing well is in bad taste (and disrespectful again). Him constantly saying how hard he had it is in bad taste. The guy only had Moyes to better, loads of money and a great fanbase that gave him more time than he would've gotten at a more ruthless club.
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The way Ole had us us playing at the start, we cannot do every week.
Not every week, but we can do it quite frequently with the right players. Of course, we won't score 5 goals and twat our opposition all the time like we did Cardiff, but the playing style can easily be replicated.
Unfortunately, our transfer policy doesn't fill me with confidence we can achieve it.
Van Gaal treated the game like it was all a scientific process unlocked within his mind alone. Like Mourinho, you could see that the players were just simply following instructions rather than expressing themselves what they could do. It was right he was removed, but he was more likable than Mourinho.
People say this a lot.
We've spent more on managers in recent years than most.
We have the top wage bill.
The difference between the wages Ole Gunnar Solskjær will demand and what Mauricio Pochettino will demand is insignificant.
Can everyone just leave this now?
Solskjær will get it or not on merit alone.
Like many people, I thought that Van Gaal was an excellent appointment for United at the time (with his track record of winning league titles at 4 other clubs), and I thought he would at least make the club title challengers again. Obviously I was wrong there.
There were plenty of damning statistics about the 2015/2016 Premier League season, the goal difference of +14, 49 goals scored (scraping into the top 10 in that category), 12th in terms of shots on target and 15th in terms of shots on goal. In both of his seasons in charge, De Gea was the best player by a considerable distance. After Mourinho took charge, I personally thought United played very good football in 2016/2017 up to about February, and were hindered by wasteful finishing. It was a sharp improvement from the 2015/2016 offer.
However on the positive side, he delivered silverware the first after Ferguson’s retirement, brought through young players, and won 10 out of his 20 league matches against the other top 6 clubs (I know you can make comparisons about how strong those rivals were compared to during Mourinho’s time in charge though). And like Mourinho, he seemed willing to throw some of his players under the bus.
People were right that his lack of self awareness and stubbornness proved to be his downfall.
There were plenty of damning statistics about the 2015/2016 Premier League season, the goal difference of +14, 49 goals scored (scraping into the top 10 in that category), 12th in terms of shots on target and 15th in terms of shots on goal. In both of his seasons in charge, De Gea was the best player by a considerable distance. After Mourinho took charge, I personally thought United played very good football in 2016/2017 up to about February, and were hindered by wasteful finishing. It was a sharp improvement from the 2015/2016 offer.
However on the positive side, he delivered silverware the first after Ferguson’s retirement, brought through young players, and won 10 out of his 20 league matches against the other top 6 clubs (I know you can make comparisons about how strong those rivals were compared to during Mourinho’s time in charge though). And like Mourinho, he seemed willing to throw some of his players under the bus.
People were right that his lack of self awareness and stubbornness proved to be his downfall.
Im very much on the same page. I very much like his charisma and direct approach though. Clear messages to players -> Better understanding. But in the end it all ended up being not creative at all. Too many instructions? Too much re-wiring?
The youth he gave a chance wasn't good enough. That is partly due to us not having a good enough youth setup and not being able to get the big transfer-targets.
There's a lot to be learnt from Van Gaal's era when it comes to getting in a DoF: Build a really solid youth system to promote bigger players like Pogba, Rashford and squad players like Lingard/McTominay from. It'll save us money to be spend on acquiring the top players/talents who decides the games and compete with City.
We can compete with City for maybe one or two big names, but in the long run they'll outspend us overall on the decent players like Mahrez, Sane, Laporte, Otamendi, etc , while we've spent all of our money on aging players like Sanchez. Every time we spend instead of having a similar youth product ready its like double-spending, as we're just temporarily plastering over the cracks and cant buy a player like Mbappe. On top of that there's motivation issues from aging players.