02 Sep 2015 12:01:09
Right so the window is closed and its time to reflect on what has happened.
My opinion is the same as it always has been, Louis van Gaal isn't the long term manager for our club but is the perfect stabilising influence we needed to get our club back on track. I think many peoples issues with LvG is they expect him to be the long term plan. He isn't, I mean how can he be. A 63 year old signed to a three year contract?
No what LvG is good at doing is being ruthless and cutting away what isn't needed and building a solid core giving an excellent foundation for those that follow him.
I wouldn't be at all surprise if the club replaced LvG at the end of the season. And I wouldn't be surprised if that was the plan all along.
Lets look at what he's done since he came into the club.
He has sold or released 28 players, players who were holding the squad back and not contributing to the first team as much as they needed to be.
He has changed the youth system to work better at suppling the first team, and easing young players into the first team and creating a path for them.
He has brought in a solid core of players, ranging from experienced leaders to youth prospect with genuine world class potential.
He has developed the players whom he had inherited and improved them and thus made them into contributing members of the team. Smalling, Young and Valencia made big contributions to the team last season for the first time in many years. He has also managed to get the best out of Fellaini last season after a very disappointing first season.
He has created a team spirit and determination that seemed to completely disappear under his predecessor.
He has improved the players understanding and tactical knowledge, This is a key point as it means that the players will better be able to understand not just what LvG wants from them but also what his successors demand.
To put it another way very few top manager wanted the Manchester United job when LvG took over, there was a broken squad full of players not good enough and stuck in an old regime struggling to adapt. There was chaos through out the club, they had recently lost an iconic manager, lost a top proven chief executive, had hired a manager and fired him in less than a year, the youth team wasn't producing and the club seemed to lack direction.
Where as now all top managers will be eyeing up the Manchester United job when it becomes available. The club has direction again, it has a very good core of players and has room for a new manager to make his mark on the squad. There seems to be stability back at the club.
The next guy will come in, make a couple of tweaks, sign a couple of marquee players and get the team playing a more attacking brand of football and be labelled a hero for it. And all this is possible thanks to the work the LvG has put in.
Then we have some fans on here bashing him and complaining about the man who has helped turn our club around, pulled us out of a downward spiral and got us back on our way to the top again.
Is Louis van Gaal the man for United's future? No, but we might just have one now because of him.
02 Sep 2015 12:15:54
Great post Shappy
02 Sep 2015 12:17:59
Shappy
Agreed , I referred to him last year as a turnaround director and that is what he has done.
02 Sep 2015 12:28:58
I fully agree with your synopsis of what has been achieved under LVG Shappy. You make your points clearly and precisely and your post was a pleasure to read, as always.
Top post Sir!
Furthermore I also believe that the latest loan deals will help to get the most out of some of our younger players upon their return.
The future is bright, the future is devilishly red! ;)
02 Sep 2015 12:34:02
I agree to a certain extent. Van Gaal came in with a mandate to get us back to the ECL and make us competitive again. And, in fairness, he has done that.
The issue, and this is a major issue, is that van Gaal has created a core of players who fit in with and accept his philosophy. In other words, we now have a core of players who are tailored to play football in the exacting ways that van Gaal believes it should be played. Ed002 rightly advised us to take heed of what Di Maria's criticisms. And although I think Di Maria is partly trying to deflect from the fact that he played poorly for most of last season, it is obvious that van Gaal believes there is a singular correct way to play football and those who don't share this view have been shipped out regardless of their talent.
So what type of future does that leave us with if van Gaal leaves next season or the season after? We have a very small squad of players who van Gaal trusts to abide by his philosophy. Any new manager will come with their own style of play and expectations. So do we try to bring in a manager with similar beliefs to van Gaal or risk undoing all the groundwork put in over the last few years by bringing in someone with who doesn't share the philosophy?
In addition we know that the Glazers have one eye on selling the club, so that has to be factored in. Do they have any interest in the club's future beyond selling it for the highest possible price? And if not, was van Gaal their attempt to get the club in a stable order for a future sale?
There will be massive uncertainty over the coming seasons, and van Gaal's tailored squad only adds to this because it is highly unlikely that our current owners or potential new owners will be relishing the idea of providing the funds for a new manager to realise their own philosophy.
02 Sep 2015 12:49:42
Good post Shappy. reminds me of the quote in the Batman film 'The Dark Knight'. Batman is the hero Gotham deserved but not the one it needs right now.
Kind of reverse it for fans.LVG is not the hero we deserve but is maybe the one that we need right now!!
Your thoughts also ring true when you look at the net spend for us, £43m which puts us second in the league but when you consider all the figures being banded about of £200m then it is a fraction of that value. For that amount we have addressed a couple of areas, cleared out some players that don't have a future at the club and brought in some young talent that could really light up the PL in years to come.
Also, if your thoughts come true that LVG will leave at the end of this year then it allows for the pot of money to still be there for future investment. It always worried me that if we went crazy that you would get one shot at it and if LVG was not for the long term then who is to say that the next manager would not want to make sweeping changes. We now have a good balance and hopefully we will start improving performance wise as well as getting the results.
02 Sep 2015 12:53:32
i don't think he has done anything any half decent manager with 250 mill couldn't of done .
does it need an essay about how lvg has given us a future ?
02 Sep 2015 12:55:58
Danny, LvG wants a tactical discipline and awareness from his players. That works on the idea of limiting the chances your opponents get.
That is a great thing for any manager to come into, he'll have a group of players with a collective understanding of defending and being difficult to beat. The foundations of every great team is how they defend. Whoever comes in will know his players can defend as a team, this will enable him to focus on how the team attack.
Players aren't robots who can only play one way, they learn and they grow from that, when they learn something else it's added to what they know rather than replacing it.
LvG taught tactical stability to Bayern yet when he left and Heynckes took over did his version of Bayern play poorly? No he taught them how to move forward with real potency though Robban, Ribery and Muller while their knowledge gained from LvG meant they were difficult to beat and never gave away too many chances.
So there is nothing to worry about that the players will only be able to play LvG's way when he leaves. None of them played it before he signed them.
02 Sep 2015 12:58:03
Danny ,
If we've brought in players who can adapt to Van Gaals philosophy and are versatile then they will be able to adapt to someone else's style of play
02 Sep 2015 14:23:34
Excellent post Shappy, agree with every word.
If he hadn't come in to to the dirty work/re-structuring (of youth as well as philosophy) we might've continued regressing, lamenting on about past glories, dreaming about getting top players in - but never achieving it because we weren't in Europe, and ending up with an overloaded squad full of average players unable to balance the books. Indeed, our once world class players might even gave ended up in America.
But he's cleared the dust away and laid the foundations for success in the future. Surely we must give him credit for stopping the decline.
02 Sep 2015 16:04:21
Top top post Shappy. Enjoyed reading it thouroughly.
@Danny,
Enter Pep Guardiola.
02 Sep 2015 17:56:14
thanks for the efforts shaps mate, most of us appreciate them.