United under LvG: verdict so far!
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I agree with him on the improved performances coming now being a good thing, especially the calibre of teams we've beaten. No World Cup/Euros this summer will help matters too. Can't see any of our transfer targets being involved in that, though got a feeling England might call upon Luke Shaw for the finals.
The Copa America is on this year though. Di Maria and Rojo will be there for Argentina, Valencia will be there for Ecuador assuming they have qualified.
Feck, forgot about that
Still, that's not too bad. Only really sad about Di Maria out of those three. Would have been nice for him to have the summer off and try and get the break in off his mind
There is no qualification for Copa America, all South American teams participate and even 2 invitees from North America are added to complete the field of 12.
Falcao will certainly feature whether he remains a United player or not. Also any international Brazilian, Chilean or Uruguayan targets wouldn't be available until July at the earliest.
Stop Playing a back three- check.
Stop playing three strikers - check.
Stop playing Rooney in midfield- check.
Stop grudge against Herrera - check.
All the things we spent 3/4 of the season moaning about Finally eradicated.
I'm not discrediting Lvg because the belief , confidence and attitude the team are playing with will have come from a lot of what he does.
Stop playing three strikers - check.
Stop playing Rooney in midfield- check.
Stop grudge against Herrera - check.
All the things we spent 3/4 of the season moaning about Finally eradicated.
I'm not discrediting Lvg because the belief , confidence and attitude the team are playing with will have come from a lot of what he does.
He's actually a good pundit and I like him together with Neville
Interesting analysis on MNF
Balls! Missed it.
If you can find somewhere to watch it, I recommend it. Nev analysed the attacking while Carragher analysed the defending. Tight, compact, all players knowing exactly what to do and showing that because we're tight and compact, though our midfield isn't quick, they're able to take the ball back fairly quickly from what they're doing. Also about us cutting out opposition options, whereas in October we were a mess and the teams we played had a number of options to pass to.
It was amazing. Van Gaal is a true genius.
It was all about how Rooney is so tactically disciplined under van gaal and how he had only 35 touches (70-80 compared to the last 4 manchester derbies) and its all down to van gaal telling him to follow instructions and occupy the two centerbacks at all times. No running around chasing the ball and running through channels. Neville said it was probably Rooney's best performance all season even though most people thought he did nothing.
Also about how compact United have become and how they look like a proper tactical continental team with Smalling constantly driving united up the field to make them more compact.
Also how we are very much like Barcelona under Guardiola in terms of compactness and pressing. Really made LVG look like a managerial genius and it was very exciting to see the job he has done.
There was some other stuff but I can't remember now!
Indeed. Consensus on redcafe seems to be he was shite because of a few heavy touches.
What time was the bit about us on at? I recorded from 7.30 onwards. Too late?
Yeah, was on around quarter past to half past I think.
I think it started at 7.15 and it went on for a while (15-20 mins).
It was Rooney's lowest amount of touches ever apparently too. They had a list of the 5 games with Rooney's amount of touches and both the Man City (35) and Liverpool away game (39) were on their so its a clear deliberate move by LVG.
I told my brother that Rooney was completely anonymous and useless yesterday
Gah!
Yep, shown him staying around right back to fill the gap while others were going up field. Usually he'd be bombing all over the place and his passing can be erratic which isn't what is wanted - especially in these sorts of matches.
Quite crazy to see that as soon as he reinstalled Fergie's proven ways of direct and wing play that he is starting to find winning league games much, much easier. Take nothing away from the work he has done for us, but that really was his missing piece. His work on setting up a very professional ball retaining system has made us incredibly hard to beat but now by giving us that Fergie attacking threat we are hard to beat and hard to attack against as well. We are United again
It's going to be very interesting what he does in Europe for us. He has the biggest budget he's ever had and pretty much guaranteed security for his job at United unlike Bayern/Barca with the constant boardroom interference.
Shame if he is only staying for 3 years though. Should pull a Fergie and stay until he's 70 something.
I believe we will excel in Europe under him . He'll probably retire when we've won the CL, so max 5 years, maybe less - thus prediction-we win the CL within 5 years or (much) less
It seems as if the squad needed time to get used to the way Van Gaal wants to play. What a surprise. Or better said, nowadays football fans have completely unrealistic expectations. The media also blows everything out of proportion.
Please win a trophy, any trophy. van Gaal and beer amongst other things is big win.
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Thanks man. Actually managed to record last 10 minutes so watched them already. It's good stuff.
Van Gaal is not only a manager, but a player too.
Thank you!
Van Gaal is not only a manager, but a player too.
Funny pictures. Reminds me of the Hangover. This video made me laugh last ten seconds.
No problem
Thanks for the link!
Kept quiet for the past three or four games. Not to gloat but glad others and myself were vindicated in seeing something different from last season.
That whole "this is no better than Moyes' shit got old real fast.
That whole "this is no better than Moyes' shit got old real fast.
What's Van Gaal's historical transfer record like? Just curious if he uncovered any Worldies outside of Barca youth system?
TBH, I don't think he is going to spend a lot this summer. A right back seems certain if it is not Clyne then I think it may be Alves on a free, then possibly a central midfielder. There will be a couple youngsters making a step up from next season as well IMO.
I wonder if he will do an end of season address to the fans at the last home game ?
Out of all of those I think it was playing Rooney in midfield (and to a certain extent Fellani in midfield) that caused issues to the team.
Don't have an issue with lots of strikers,
3 at the back was enforced and
Herrera wasn't ready to play the role LVG wanted, so not sure it was a grudge.
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/blog/marcot...-new-role-barca-drop-points-gabriele-marcotti
Marcotti impressed. He's always been a big admirer of van gaal.
Those Marcotti musings are consistently excellent if anyone is interested.
Marcotti impressed. He's always been a big admirer of van gaal.
Those Marcotti musings are consistently excellent if anyone is interested.
Just a little something I had to get off my chest.
LvG has said from the start that his favorite formation is 4-3-3 because it suits his philosophy the best.
LvG has said that he was forced to play 3-5-2 because not only is the team unable to play his philosophy yet, but also because we were playing with only 1 fit proper defender for months at a time. So he needed the extra defender to reduce risk of conceding goals.
LvG has also said that playing with 2 strikers and 1 number 10 allowed him to try and experiment to fit in our best players in their best positions (Falcao, RvP and Rooney). He has since abandoned that idea.
LvG has said that he sees Rooney as a striker but was forced to play Rooney in midfield because he needs someone who has the discipline to play according to his philosophy, which in hindsight, was presumably a message to Herrera.
Herrera himself has admitted in recent interviews that he was kept out because he kept looking for the ball instead of staying in position. He understands the philosophy now and is therefore playing more often now.
With herrera back, Rooney has been restored as a striker.
LvG has his own reasons for doing what he does and they were reasonable at that point in time. He doesn't need some internet warrior to tell him what to do. Not to mention the fact that almost everything most internet warriors are moaning about are wrong anyway.
We are 3rd in the league. We have the third best attack and second best defence in the league. How people keep saying LvG f-ed up the defence with 3 defenders or f-ed up our attack with the wrong formation is ridiculous. We are where we are because of him. Not in spite of him. He took some time to adapt, but everything he did, was for a good reason and he even took the trouble to explain himself numerous times.
The first thing he fixed was the defence. By November, we went back to a 3 man defence and were no longer shipping goals. Next was improving our possession and control of matches. By January, we kept possession even when teams pressed us and had total control over most games, barring the odd individual errors. The last piece was penetration and scoring goals. Now that most players are back and the team can play his philosophy comfortably, he was able to switch back to a back 4. After Herrera came back, eventually he was able to use his favorite 4-3-3 (albeit a modified version, as when we lose the ball, it's more of a 4-1-4-1) to start fixing our attack. And now the goals are pouring in.
Everything he has done, can be seen with a purpose. He did not luck it on most things we have achieved this season. As the saying goes, form is temporary. Class is permanent.
LvG has said from the start that his favorite formation is 4-3-3 because it suits his philosophy the best.
LvG has said that he was forced to play 3-5-2 because not only is the team unable to play his philosophy yet, but also because we were playing with only 1 fit proper defender for months at a time. So he needed the extra defender to reduce risk of conceding goals.
LvG has also said that playing with 2 strikers and 1 number 10 allowed him to try and experiment to fit in our best players in their best positions (Falcao, RvP and Rooney). He has since abandoned that idea.
LvG has said that he sees Rooney as a striker but was forced to play Rooney in midfield because he needs someone who has the discipline to play according to his philosophy, which in hindsight, was presumably a message to Herrera.
Herrera himself has admitted in recent interviews that he was kept out because he kept looking for the ball instead of staying in position. He understands the philosophy now and is therefore playing more often now.
With herrera back, Rooney has been restored as a striker.
LvG has his own reasons for doing what he does and they were reasonable at that point in time. He doesn't need some internet warrior to tell him what to do. Not to mention the fact that almost everything most internet warriors are moaning about are wrong anyway.
We are 3rd in the league. We have the third best attack and second best defence in the league. How people keep saying LvG f-ed up the defence with 3 defenders or f-ed up our attack with the wrong formation is ridiculous. We are where we are because of him. Not in spite of him. He took some time to adapt, but everything he did, was for a good reason and he even took the trouble to explain himself numerous times.
The first thing he fixed was the defence. By November, we went back to a 3 man defence and were no longer shipping goals. Next was improving our possession and control of matches. By January, we kept possession even when teams pressed us and had total control over most games, barring the odd individual errors. The last piece was penetration and scoring goals. Now that most players are back and the team can play his philosophy comfortably, he was able to switch back to a back 4. After Herrera came back, eventually he was able to use his favorite 4-3-3 (albeit a modified version, as when we lose the ball, it's more of a 4-1-4-1) to start fixing our attack. And now the goals are pouring in.
Everything he has done, can be seen with a purpose. He did not luck it on most things we have achieved this season. As the saying goes, form is temporary. Class is permanent.
Good post, summarises most of my personal thoughts on the matter, the only one you missed was when he tried Di Maria upfront for a few games, it was with the purpose to trying to provide some pace in-behind so teams couldnt push up on us so high, did it work? no... but there WAS a method to the madness, just like most of the stuff hes experiemented with.
He's rebuilt our defence, he's rebuilt our passing style, he's rebuilt our energy, tempo, pressing etc gotten players who most of us wanted thrown on to the scrap heap to perform, (Valencia, Young, Smalling, Jones etc)
The only real negative I hold against him is persisting with RvP and to a lesser extent Falcao when it was clear they were not pulling their weight for too long, but I digress.
It's kind of funny if you think about it. To punish a player who kept drifting our of position looking for the ball, and putting Rooney, of all people, in his place - the player famed for his tendency to pop up everywhere on the pitch, and who is only now being praised for eliminating that tendency from his own game.
I agree tho, with pretty much everything you said. I think the penny really dropped for this team when Herrera figured out what he was meant to be doing. Seems like everything fell into place after that.
I know what you mean. I'm more worried about the Di Maria dilemma. It remains an issue LvG will eventually need to resolve.
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