Ah yes. His mythical philosophy. He talked about it a lot, but I don’t think even he knew what it was. The players clearly didn’t.
Louis Van Gaal appointed Dutch manager for the third time.
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Ah yes. His mythical philosophy. He talked about it a lot, but I don’t think even he knew what it was. The players clearly didn’t.
And the players he got was Blackett, Varela, McNair etc.
What he needed was a strong DoF who could understand his requirements and get players based on his style. He had a plan but Woody either spent on gross or older players.
You’re being rather selective with the players you mention. His transfers were atrocious.
Yeah his successors showed him how it should be done with their stellar signings of Pogba, Sanchez and Maguire.
The football in LvG’s sections season was pretty grim, but the second half of Jose’s second season was every bit as bad. That nil-nil at home to a very poor Southampton just after Christmas 2017 was shocking.
That's exactly my point. He needed a DoF instead we let him select his players. The issue wasn't his tactics or ability rather it was our inability to support him with right structure.
It’s all been bad aesthetically bar Jose’s first season to be honest. At least with LVG we never really got dicked and generally matched the strongest teams, his transfers were just rubbish and we had no goal scorers.
With LVG it was the one and only time since SAF that I could say we had a clear and defined style of play. Unfortunately, his transfers were complete dogshit, which he is partly in fault for, and that held us back big time. He's not a "manager" like SAF, he's more like a head coach
So it’s the clubs fault for buying the players that he wanted? Not his fault for wanting god awful players?
Blind was good. As was Martial (yes it was a long time ago!). But yes that’s true. The football did improve under Jose, surprisingly. People forget how good Pogba was in many games in his first season.
Are people really trying to paint LVG as a bad manager?
He was a very good manager for us, the football may not have been great at times, but we dominated nearly every game we played in, and had a cohesive plan.
His transfer were good for his system, but not for Jose's.
There is plenty of revisionist history going on in here.
He was a very good manager for us, the football may not have been great at times, but we dominated nearly every game we played in, and had a cohesive plan.
His transfer were good for his system, but not for Jose's.
There is plenty of revisionist history going on in here.
A bad manager? No, of course not, his track record speaks for itself
A terrible manager for us? Absolutely. His transfers absolutely weren’t good for him either, Memphis, Rojo, Schweinsteiger, Di Maria, Falcao, Herrera the list goes on, they weren’t just poor under Jose they were poor under LvG too.
How many of these players were his first choice - or just players he somewhat had to take as he could not get his chances?
Schweinsteiger was somewhat cheap and a bargain - because of his injuries that just did not work out.
Certainly the WC will be more interesting to watch with him around. I wonder what he will say about Qatar if they ask him...
"Only 37 workers dead. Can you believe it?
They better not try to ask him anything, he is probably the least politically correct NT coach on that competition, always liked the crazy things he said,even when his first season at Barcelona coming from Ajax after Ronaldo Nazário left for Inter Milan that he wasn't worried anyway because he wasn't able to play in his system.
He already had his say. Called them out on it.
If he's in Timber's ear about reconsidering joining us due to uncertainties of game time, he better be in de Jong's ear about joining us as he will play more (& in his favoured position) here.
Fair is fair, Louis!
Fair is fair, Louis!
So his problem was his incompetence in buying players to fit his ‘philosophy’? For the record, his tactics were also garbage. It was basically pass the ball around the back line and hope something happens.
That’s not much of an argument now is it?
Plenty of revisionist history in this post, that’s for sure.
There you go (very quick search, there might be harsher quoted as well; it's Van Gaal after all):
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nds-louis-van-gaal-world-cup-qatar-ridiculous
Yes it is. Most of our signings since SAF retired have been either shit or a poor fit, regardless of the manager. It’s clearly an issue that goes above and beyond them. Jose spent squillions and yet his fanboys still bleat about how he “wasn’t backed”.
Or, just possibly, Jose had little say over transfers. In which case, none of the others did either.
How can you blame him if the club didn't provide him the structure you expect? He isn't a transfer expert.
His tactics weren't garbage. How many times have we gone to Etihad or Anfield and dominated them?
We won FA cup , probably the most important trophy post SAF under him.
We got 70 and 66 points under him ( 87 and 81 got you PL that seasons).
Passing around the back and hoping something happens? That's not going to get you anything mate.
Yeah, I suppose there is.
At the time people thought he was awful, yet he managed to win a trophy, had a structure and way if playing.
Both of which we have found hard to come by since.
Looking back it's clear he was on the right track before he was fired, despite some setbacks which almost seem minor after the car crash of this season.
That’s a huge leap.
The fact we’ve had worse managers since doesn’t make his time in charge any less of a failure. It was truly awful stuff. One or two shots on target per game, against bang average opposition. Losing to relegation fodder at home. Joyless, dull and excruciating to watch. After investing huge sums of money in the squad.
People seem to only remember a handful of good games against the likes of Liverpool and Spurs, then try and spin that into something much more substantial. His time in charge was an absolute fecking chore, the team was obviously going nowhere and the squad he assembled was an absurd waste of money. We were well rid of him.
The problem with LVG transfers was that Di Maria, Falcao and Depay were massive letdowns.
Herrera was spot on and our best post SAF transfer. Luke Shaw was good transfer too.
Schneiderlin was overhyped from Southampton, we fell for it.
Herrera was spot on and our best post SAF transfer. Luke Shaw was good transfer too.
Schneiderlin was overhyped from Southampton, we fell for it.
Just like Van Gaal, someone else whose contribution gets massively overrated with hindsight.
Jesus! It really wasn't that bad!
Yes some games were insipid, but others were in fact great to watch.
I for one enjoyed the fact that we would go into every match dominating possession, occasionally we would lack a cutting edge due to teams sitting very deep.
Other than a poor December, the FA cup winning season saw us finish strongly.
I really like him and he is obviously one of the best coaches ever but let's not pretend he wasn't terrible for us. By the end it literally looked like we had no idea how to create an opportunity to get a shot on target.
I know we won the FA Cup in his last game but even that took a scrappy goal lobbed into Fellaini and a wonder goal from Lingard of all people.
Not being harsh as I genuinely like him and respect him but his time with us was a low.
I know we won the FA Cup in his last game but even that took a scrappy goal lobbed into Fellaini and a wonder goal from Lingard of all people.
Not being harsh as I genuinely like him and respect him but his time with us was a low.
Herrera and Shaw were club signings, planned with or without LvG. Van Gaal's signings were awful and football got worse with time actually. His both seasons weren't great in hindsight, 2014/15 was solid but we had no European football to play and still finished only 4th + got knocked out of both cups. 2015/16 was terrible from December until the end. Winning the Fa Cup was only good thing (apart from some results against Liverpool and City), though we did not face even one strong opposition in the process.
Herrera won the player of the year for us in 2017. Don't think he was overrated.
The real problem with sacking LVG was the decision to throw the baby out with the bathwater and move away from possession-style football by replacing him with Mourinho.
A manager failing shouldn't mean you step away from his entire approach to football. Rather you should decide on the approach to football you want first and then ideally cycle through the best managers who fit that style, with the players you sign for one manager then largely being of a profile that suits the next manager too.
But we never had a clear enough idea of what football we actually wanted at the club to do that.
A manager failing shouldn't mean you step away from his entire approach to football. Rather you should decide on the approach to football you want first and then ideally cycle through the best managers who fit that style, with the players you sign for one manager then largely being of a profile that suits the next manager too.
But we never had a clear enough idea of what football we actually wanted at the club to do that.
It actually did start to turn around for LvG towards the end there. Another season wouldn't have hurt I don't think but the board panicked and thought Mourinho wouldn't be out of a job that long.
Hmm....I only believe my eyes.
Between watching Moyes, LVG, Jose and Ole games, I felt asleep the most was during LVG's time. Countless 0-0 with zero shots on targets. It took 100 short passes to get from end to the other end. No risks allowed. Slow and robotic football. Even when we were losing at the end of the match the players showed no urgency at all and continued with the side way or back pass short passing. It was atrocious.
Between watching Moyes, LVG, Jose and Ole games, I felt asleep the most was during LVG's time. Countless 0-0 with zero shots on targets. It took 100 short passes to get from end to the other end. No risks allowed. Slow and robotic football. Even when we were losing at the end of the match the players showed no urgency at all and continued with the side way or back pass short passing. It was atrocious.
Once Martial and Rashford came into the side we looked way more exciting.
We desperately lacked pace, our forwards were all good but aging. Rooney, Falcao, RVP. We ended up playing Fellaini up top in a 3-5-2 at times.
I do think with the FA cup win and a couple better transfers we'd have been in a better position than Jose left us
We desperately lacked pace, our forwards were all good but aging. Rooney, Falcao, RVP. We ended up playing Fellaini up top in a 3-5-2 at times.
I do think with the FA cup win and a couple better transfers we'd have been in a better position than Jose left us
I think with the right structure we could have done well under LVG. Unfortunately we were clueless and decided to ask him who he wanted rather than sign players for him like the model competent clubs have. As such his signings were utter shite and he got rid of players who I think should have stayed. Anyone praising his time should be forced to relive that December in his last season on a fecking loop. We used to cheer shots on goal for fecks sake so rare they were.
To the contrary. It’s been documented that managers had too much say on transfers, something which started to change after Jose. And for what it’s worth, LVG quite comfortably wins the award for worst transfer record post-SAF. Quite comfortably.