Louis van Gaal | Manchester United manager

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He seems the polar opposite of what I expected. If he was as ruthless as we all thought, clowns like Anderson would have been sold immediately.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
Once we shift the players he wants out, get a proper DM in, and can actually play our first team we will be dynamite, every confidence still.
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Same here. Now it's just a case of actually getting rid of all these players and getting some more "right" players in.
 
simonhch said:
LVG said in an interview (the one where he dropped ADM's name), that he was playing 3-5-2 because he didn't have a top class winger like Ronaldo or Di Maria, to play a 4-3-3. But now he does, so presumably we will switch to that. Presumably......

He's also said many times that the players are more used to a 4-3-3. So if the dreadful start to the season and this disgraceful person doesn't expedite that (especially in the wake of the ADM signing) then I am at a loss. It's also the formation that LVG has had his teams play the majority of his career, and one he has openly stated is his favourite.
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My worry is.. With the acquisition of di Maria today ( and it's been clear for a few days it's a done deal ) if LVG is looking to play 433 going forward, why would he have persisted with the 352 today?

I've got a bad feeling we might be seeing ADM in CM or even LWB in the coming weeks.
 
saivet said:
Moyes got battered for a lot less!
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After at least half a season of it. Why is everyone being so willfully beligerent about that?

Are there loads of Moyesites desperate to stick the boot in or something? LVG is a completely different kettle of cod and has been here for 5 minutes.
 
United22 said:
So far he has been a shambles, if it was Moyes we would be raging here. But I hope he can turn it around
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Whilst I agree Moyes would of gotten it worse the problem Moyes had is he never had previous with a big club and proven success. Van Gaal does. Fair enough he's had some shockers (his 2nd spell at Barca) but overall he's a hugely successful manager. HE will be given more time than Moyes due to reputation and rightfully so. In fairness this at the moment doesn't do Moyes much harm....if anything it helps him a bit as It shows he wasn't the only problem! The 3-5-2 doesn't work but I don't think we're sticking with it personally. Depending on who else we sign I can imagine the system will change.
 
It's not his style to stand on the touchline blaring instructions. He works on players intelligence in training and then trusts them to deliver on the pitch. I doubt distracting players and shouting things from the sidelines really has any significant effect. Tonight was a disaster without doubt, but it's only been 3 games so let's not go overboard, looks to be a real mental issue more than anything to me and that will take a good deal of time to sort out. Comparisons with Moyes are beyond tiresome, the situations are completely different, last season we started as champions, this year we start as a team who has dramatically fallen from the top trying to turn the tide.

I believe in Van Gaal's ability as a manager to turn it around, but it's not been the start anyone wanted. The Burnley game is really huge now (due to first 2 league games) and even more pressure on our players is a worrying prospect so it's going to be a bloody nervy one.

Edit: I would have liked to have seen a stronger side out there tonight and I think LVG really made a mistake in that regard. I may have even played the first team just to get a win and get some confidence brewing.
 
To be honest, that was a youth team. That's the youngest team we've ever played in a cup competition. Result completely expected.

However, the 532 needs to go. It's so, so bad.

Actually, we had a few experienced heads in there...

Meh, god knows. I don't think van Gaal thought an average League 1 team would have so much gusto.

MK Dons equivalents in other leagues are utterly useless.
 
On the other hand, i'm not going to get carried away here. Once I saw the selection, I always thought an upset was on the cards. That was essentially a youth team playing experienced - if limited - professional footballers. A defeat isn't that surprising.

But going forward, and once the injuries start to clear up, I can still see us improving drastically.

(Mind, I was saying this about Moyes' United right up until the 2-0 loss at Everton)
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Well we're 3 games into the season and it's clear pre-season wasn't a worthwhile barometer. Jumping up and down isn't going to get anything done any quicker.
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No but you take action. Remember when Rodgers got mocked for what he said about the intensity. Teams don't fear us, and the course of a match changes throughout the game. So change it. Be pro active. Pre determined tactics won't win us games with the quality we have.
 
I'm already getting annoyed about him banging on abut his philosophy but we do need to be patient.

He told us we'd be shit for the first few months and we are well on our way to that. He'll come good eventually. I hope tonight has made up his mind though about some of the wasters we have like Anderson and Hernandez.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
Fergie used to play 6 strikers, Berbatov and Park in midfield with some random teenager at center back in some of these games and we got on fine. This is a bad excuse.
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You can do that when you have a side that is winning and full of confidence. Not when you have a team with zero confidence, playing a new system with barely any experience on the pitch.
 
- Janujaz at right wing back v Swansea
- Ashley young at left wing back - no manager in the world would ever play Ashley young there!!
- Wrong formation today, there was no need to play 3 at the back
- Wrong substitutions tonight

Overall not impressed at all. He's trying to shoehorn players into a shit system and its not working at all. I'm not calling for his head - just pointing out his flaws from my point of view so far.
 
ShinjiNinja26 said:
I thought LVG was a fiery, no nonsense type character? it's been the polar opposite so far, has he even once during these first 3 games stood up off his seat and displayed any sort of emotion?? I thought he'd be the perfect candidate to kick these players arses into gear but so far I'm unconvinced, early days yet though.
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This is what I thought, hopefully his working up a appetite to kick some ass.
 
W
Trizy said:
I'm not gonna blame LVG for the players being spineless and shit, they were the players he was left with I will however blame him for not selling half of them after preseason and for continuing to play that fecking 342 system!
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come on what options did he have with 7/8 injuries
 
What is van Gaal supposed to do? We played against Sunderland just a couple of days ago. He said 9 players are out injured (not one of our new signings is available) and so we're having to play a lot of the kids. The criticism of Van Gaal is crazy. And what do you expect him to say immediately after the game? I am managing a load of rubbish?
 
Roboc7 said:
Problems run deeper than just another bad day at the office, that's three out of three this season and all of the bad days from last season. We are in a mess and there isn't a short term fix but persisting with this style of football and formation is going to be a massive risk. Manager wasn't completely at fault but in the three games so far he has not made good decisions, he is not the miracle worker, tactical genius so many thought he was, he might turn this round but he could fail spectacularly as well. We shouldn't panic but this is going to be a really long and difficult season it is not just a bad day.
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I wouldn't compare the other two performances against this one. Those two games have nothing to do with this result, because DDG is the only player to play in it. We are addressing the issues of the first team squad. Everyone wanted to give the young players a run out for the game and they didn't play well and guess what the immediate reaction is ??.. He should have played a stronger team. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If we had lost this game by playing a team close to first 11, then you could say all three of them as similar performances and press the panic button. But once the second goal went in, the players lost complete confidence and were all over the place. Similar to the 6-1 against city. On another day, Hernandez may not have slipped and scored in the first few minutes and the result would have been entirely different.

We are talking about a manager who has a good pedigree and has handled the highest level of pressures in clubs around Europe. If a similar result happens at the weekend, then we are truly fecked. But, we will see. A result like this is always going to create fear and frustration among the fans, but I wouldn't write any conclusions yet.
 
justboy68 said:
It's not his style to stand on the touchline blaring instructions. He works on players intelligence in training and then trusts them to deliver on the pitch. I doubt distracting players and shouting things from the sidelines really has any significant effect. Tonight was a disaster without doubt, but it's only been 3 games so let's not go overboard, looks to be a real mental issue more than anything to me and that will take a good deal of time to sort out. Comparisons with Moyes are beyond tiresome, the situations are completely different, last season we started as champions, this year we start as a team who has dramatically fallen from the top trying to turn the tide.

I believe in Van Gaal's ability as a manager to turn it around, but it's not been the start anyone wanted. The Burnley game is really huge now (due to first 2 league games) and even more pressure on our players is a worrying prospect so it's going to be a bloody nervy one.
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It's not about shouting on the touchline. Make your presence felt. Motivate the players. Look at the Dons manager today. Wenger in these games. He's there. Not shouting but encouraging, giving direction.

It's what I hated about Moyes. Bayern H + A he was animated and involved, Villa at home with the banner. Too often he slouched back.
 
Patience tards, patience.. I guarantee 2 months down the line, it will be 4-3-3 and alot of players will be either bombed out or banished. He knows what he is doing.. there is method to his madness.
 
Sadly, we have a week left to ideally get rid of at least 5 or 6 players and replace him adequately.

We've left it way too late, and the one thing I blame LVG for is not realising that the squad needed a revamp sooner. Some of the players do not deserve to wear the shirt, and to be honest some of those should have been shown the door under Moyes and/or Fergie.

I really hope he realises that he doesn't have the squad at disposal right now to use the 3-5-2. We don't have specialist wing-backs which are clearly crucial for a 3-5-2.
 
I'm not buying into this it's going to to take time nonsense either. You can't excuse 4-0 tonight.
 
The face of Ed Woodward tonight was encouraging, now go get Vidal and Benatia.
 
Steve Claridge:
"If that is the attitude he (Louis van Gaal) came into the game with, that is the performance he deserved. If I was the manager I would be waiting to get at the players, not signing autographs. That is exactly why you get the performance he did.

"The players need to learn and learn very quickly. They were beaten in every facet of this football game. MK Dons were better for effort, will to win, skill, enthusiasm, everything."
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Red_Jamie said:
My worry is.. With the acquisition of di Maria today ( and it's been clear for a few days it's a done deal ) if LVG is looking to play 433 going forward, why would he have persisted with the 352 today?

I've got a bad feeling we might be seeing ADM in CM or even LWB in the coming weeks.
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I'm left pondering the same thing today - there was absolutely no need to play 3-5-2 today!!! Very very dissapointing from van gaal.
 
Nothing has changed for me with regards to LVG tonight. I completely trust in him to transform us for the better. But it will take time. Months to even a year or two.
 
Sixpence said:
He seems the polar opposite of what I expected. If he was as ruthless as we all thought, clowns like Anderson would have been sold immediately.
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You've figured that out in one month have you? It's about giving everyone a chance. Literally everyone. This was Anderson's first game in the team and believe it or not he wasn't the worst player on the pitch, though not much better.

Perhaps it's that noone wants him? Why not consider that? It's already being mentioned that Van Gaal prefers a squad of 18 for this season. Don't worry, there's still yet time to ship off the shite.
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
Sadly, we have a week left to ideally get rid of at least 5 or 6 players and replace him adequately.

We've left it way too late, and the one thing I blame LVG for is not realising that the squad needed a revamp sooner. Some of the players do not deserve to wear the shirt, and to be honest some of those should have been shown the door under Moyes and/or Fergie.

I really hope he realises that he doesn't have the squad at disposal right now to use the 3-5-2. We don't have specialist wing-backs which are clearly crucial for a 3-5-2.
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I hate the idea that all these players were given clean sheets after last year. I would expect someone earning that amount of money to have watched every game from last season and to come in saying "sorry, last year wasn't good enough, see you later."
 
Boycott said:
It's not about shouting on the touchline. Make your presence felt. Motivate the players. Look at the Dons manager today. Wenger in these games. He's there. Not shouting but encouraging, giving direction.

It's what I hated about Moyes. Bayern H + A he was animated and involved, Villa at home with the banner. Too often he slouched back.
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There is a reason why LVG isn't doing that... he doesn't trust this set of players. He doesn't want to be associated with this group of players, he's letting them commit suicide on the pitch, so he can say to the owners.. look at what I have to work with, it is a message to the fans too.. don't expect miracles with this group of players.

He'll become more animated once he has a team he truly believes in.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
So he has to carry the can for this as well as the players. If the whole set up from under 12s whatever played it then yes it would work but he's experimented tonight and it failed
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That's what i think, there has been unforgivable mental errors from the players but LVG choices has been bad for a few weeks now. The system only suits 5 players in the team (RVP, Jones, Shaw, Herrera and Blackett) all the other players are struggling.

He is trying to emulate his netherland system, with players who are struggling to play without the ball they can't read the space properly, and without the two most important roles field we don't have players for the Robben role and the De Jong Role.

And finally, tonight he let his players down, you don't throw young players on the pitch with the likes of Anderson, Hernandez or Welbeck, they needed players to inspire them, to give them confidence, Rooney, RVP or Jones were needed.
 
Dylan94 said:
Nothing has changed for me with regards to LVG tonight. I completely trust in him to transform us for the better. But it will take time. Months to even a year or two.
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Months yes! Years? He's never needed years. The team will be turned around in 3 at the earliest
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Steve Claridge on BBC:

"Louis van Gaal contributed by playing people out of position and a system that didn't suit them. They didn't know what they were doing, didn't know what they're playing. The players aren't that bad but they don't understand the system they're playing in."
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Indeed. I wasn't that bothered with our two disappointing PL games as that's the first team getting used to 352. I'm furious with the manager tonight for screwing over the youngsters like that because he wanted to play his own formation rather than one they stood a better chance with.
 
KM said:
We've to get rid of that system. Its not working.
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We know that, the team knows that, in fact the whole of the footballing world now knows that. LVG is stubborn, always has been. I feel he'll stick with it no matter how often we get battered. Gggrrrrr!
 
LVG will get things right.. People need to calm down....

This is the massive overhaul many of us knew would happen eventually.

If anything this shows that the problems with this group of players runs deeper then David Moyes... Whatever formation they play, Their confidence is easily eroded.

They don't seem to have much fight or rebound ability when going a goal down. Perhaps it's a
Hangover from last season but it's raised a lot of questions about this squad...

That said, as players get fit, signings bed in and the team settles on its new formation, things will settle down and improve dramatically. I think sometimes you just need a break and a bit of luck to dust away the cobwebs and get things back on track...

LVG will get things right, just give him time....
 
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