LVG was a good manager in the 90's. His achievements since then are nothing to write home about.
Rid of deadwood? I would hardly count RVP, Evans, Rafael or Nani as deadwood. Especially in the case of Evans - keeping an appalling, atrocious defender in Rojo ahead of him was a terrible decision.
He didn't choose to use the youngsters, injuries forced his hand. It was either playing the youth or having less than 11 players on the field. Consider the case of CBJ. As soon as Rojo was fit, he was back in at LB, despite not even putting a single perfordnance better than what CBJ showed.
Having the likes of McNair and Blackett? He was given free reign and an unlimited budget to sign whoever he wants. If he ends up with Blackett (someone who couldn't even get in the bloody Celtic team, in a league that's at the standard of League 1 these days), then it's his lack of judgment of players, not the fact that he was stuck with players he didn't want. He chose Blackett, he chose McNair.
Adding 4 players, that's almost a third of a team. Jose came in and saw that he needed at least one defender, one midfielder and two attackers better than what LVG had assembled. If someone comes in and says that every aspect of something you have built is lacking, I wouldn't consider it as "building the foundation."
To summarize, I'm drunk as feck, but to see a United fan defending a manager who was worse than Moyes makes my blood boil. The happiest day as a United fan I've had since Fergie retired was when LVG got sacked. That Dutch loon's face is enough to give me a decking aneurism.