Van Gaal and his failing philosophies by @Komptrolla
The reality of existence has taught us that you can't possibly be in the good books of everyone, but when the same notion keeps reverberating and resonating across all parties as the reason for one's blacklisting then it's worth evaluating.
When some players came up after Manchester United signed Louis Van Gaal as manager to replace Merseyside product and the failed chosen one David Moyes to condemn his personality, it was waived off as some insignificant rants, fast forward one year later, the departure of fellow countryman Robin Van Persie, Angel Di Maria and the situation of exit bound Victor Valdes show there's substance in the insignificant rants of Luca Toni and former world footballer of the year Rivaldo among others.
To be fair to the Dutch tactician, the case of “the Flying Dutchman” was more of Karma than anything else, Arsenal were patient with the injury prone striker for lengthy unproductive seasons, he comes on and off to show glimpses of brilliance and then disappear to leave Arsenal at the mercy of the likes of Nicklas Bendtner, Emmanuel Adebayor, Marouane Chamakh and other Wenger's ideas of strikers.
The only full season he had was the bomb outing of 2011/2012 season after which he announced on his website on a warm Monday morning of 2012 summer that he won't be signing a new deal at Arsenal, it was like a dagger to the heart, he dashed the hopes of many faithful supporters, his reasons? He wanted silverwares, he said Arsenal wasn't moving in his own direction and he headed north to join fiercest rivals Manchester United.
Though he wasn't loyal to Arsenal but he was professional till the end, days later he said the little boy inside of him wouldn't stop humming Manchester United, the move paid off instantly, he delivered the goals that landed the twentieth league title at Old Trafford and RVP was obviously the MVP.
Sir Alex Ferguson retired afterwards and the law of diminishing returns set in prematurely; Rifts with the anointed successor over training patterns and tactics culminated into 7th place finish and boom! His homeboy became his manager, another failed season and the patience he enjoyed at Arsenal wasn't available at a ruthless Manchester, Van Gaal told him in May to source for clubs, the little boy on the inside probably went AWOL this time as he was offloaded at a cut price to Fernabahce.
He was ruthless in his decision to dump Arsenal; he suffered same ruthlessness at Old Trafford... I digress.
The rigidity of Louis Van Gaal is the debate here, from tactics to team selection, he obviously got a lot wrong last term and unarguably the only reason he's still at United is because Liverpool blew several chances to usurp Manchester United and finish fourth, Van Gaal started off with a 3 man defense with the likes of Rojo and Evans injured, Swansea silenced the Old Trafford crowd on the opening day and Sunderland held them afterwards, he refused to bend until Leicester city humiliated his men after going 3:1 up.
When record signing, Angel Di Maria lost form at the turn of the new year, Van Gaal didn't give him chance to step up in play, instead he preferred Ashley Young to bomb up and down the flanks week in week out, the selection of Falcao, RVP and Rooney at the same time never yielded dividends, yet Van Gaal kept playing them until one either gets injured or suspended.
His philosophy wasn't working, yet he didn't shift grounds, he can rightly point at his Blackett/McNair pairing that earned him 3points at Arsenal, but you won't play the spineless gunners every week, when MK Dons dumped the Red Devils out of the league cup early on, one thought that would teach the Dutchman lessons, we guessed wrong.
Rivaldo questioned the sensitivity of Van Gaal in the media severally over the last campaign while Luca Toni described him as a jailer after he offloaded him for dozing off at his inaugural speech after being named Bayern coach.
Van Gaal only got two decisions right all season long, selling Welbeck to Arsenal to help them defend their FA Trophy and handing Wayne Rooney the captain arm band.
Look around Louis, your protégé Jose Mourinho has introduced flexibility into his game, you can't be right all the time, under your nose the pride of millions of United fans is heading to Paris, David De Gea wouldn't be this keen to leave if Ferguson were to be the coach, even Professor Wenger has yielded to change and has started spending, even if you buy the whole Europe you still won't have a good season with your incompatible tactics.
Pedro signing isn't equal to the talents of Angel Di Maria, United fans will be left frustrated again as they have been over the last two seasons except maybe they LOSE Van Gaal.
Article written by @Komptrola.
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