The Pro's and Cons of the LVG Era! 22 Dec 2015 10:40

By Philip Meese, Editor-in-Chief

As the storm clouds gather over Old Trafford, the media speculation is that Louis van Gaal is on borrowed time at Manchester United. Some rumours say that he has to get positive results in the upcoming games against Stoke City and Chelsea, whereas others say that he may be replaced before those matches. Here, we take a look at all of the positives and negatives from his reign so far.

What has he got right?

There is no doubt that he has, in a lot of ways, stabilised the club. Manchester United were in a proper mess after the David Moyes experiment, and up until this last couple of weeks, van Gaal had met every requirement so far. He was tasked with getting the club back into the Champions League, and he did just that.

It’s true that going out of the competition at the group stages was a huge disappointment, but in terms of revenue, it won’t hurt the club too much financially, as the majority of prize money awarded by UEFA generally comes from that part of the competition. This season, clubs are awarded €12 million for participating in the group stage, with a further €1.5 million awarded for a win and €500,000 for a draw. That amounts to €16 million, based on the results we had, before television and sponsorship money is added. Had they qualified for the knockout phase, United would have made a further €5.5 million, which increases slightly the further you progress. Of course, they will miss out on extra revenue because of this, but the Old Trafford budget would have been based on the guaranteed revenue of being in the group stages. Anything extra was a bonus.

There is a lot of talk about the money he has spent, but in my opinion, this was money we should have been spending over the four to five years prior to van Gaal’s appointment. The fact is that Sir Alex Ferguson left the team as champions, but the truth is that he left an ageing squad, full of players who were either past their peak (Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher and Vidic), never fulfilled their potential (Anderson, Nani, even Rooney could be added to that list) or just weren’t good enough when compared with their predecessors (Cleverley, Welbeck, Evans). Nobody but Ferguson could have made a team with those players, at that stage of their careers, into a title winning squad.

I look at the players van Gaal has brought in, and the players he has got rid of, and with the obvious exception that he should have retained at least one of the strikers, I don’t see how any of them would make much of a difference to our current predicament.  A good example would be Javier Hernández. He’s setting the Bundesliga alight right now, but does anyone really believe he would be doing that at United, had he stayed? Think about it, if you aren’t going to be playing much, you aren’t going to get into a hot streak of scoring like he is at the moment. And he was never a first choice under either of Louis van Gaal’s predecessors either.

I also look at the players he has brought in, and I don’t have a serious issue with any of them. Individually, they are all quality players, and one or two have the potential to be world class signings, given the right coaching and advice. And one United tradition he has continued is that of promoting youth. You could almost make an entire team made up of the young players he has given first team debuts to.

My only reservation with the amount that van Gaal has spent is that it wasn’t enough, because there are still gaps in the squad. The truth is that he has spent around £260 million, which is approximately £20 million more than City did in the first 12 months of the Mansour era – and that was almost eight years ago. Eight years from now, would it really surprise anyone if one player has been transferred for that amount? Can’t say I would be shocked.

The amount of money that is floating around the game is only going to increase with every new TV deal, and as long as United have the kind of revenue to compete, then I don’t have a problem with it. It’s either that or we get left behind. And the fact that he has got rid of a lot of the deadwood, who stopped truly earning the huge salaries we were paying them a long time ago, will definitely have a positive influence on our budget.

What has he got wrong?

This is where it gets tasty. As I have previously stated, I don’t look at any of the signings he’s made and think “you’re a crap player”. Even signings like Falcao and Di Maria, who didn’t work out, seemed like good business at the time. The fans had been crying out for big name signings for years, and it showed the rest of the league that United meant business. So given that every player he’s signed has quality in abundance, why is it not working out?

Despite the money we have spent, you have to remember that all of our rivals haven’t exactly stood still in the transfer market, but the difference is that we have bought practically a whole new squad, whereas they have made a few expensive additions to quality squads who have played together for years. Even so, games like Norwich on Saturday shouldn’t be happening.

Now you might note that I haven’t put our improved defensive record in the “plus” column. The reason for this is that, although Chris Smalling has improved beyond recognition, we have still been very reliant on David de Gea to get us out of trouble in most of our matches this season. Had he gone to Madrid in August, I dread to think what our Goals Conceded column would look like, and where we would be in the league table right now. With that in mind, have we really improved that much defensively?

It seems that the “Philosophy” that van Gaal is so fond of is completely immovable. There is no flexibility to it. Certainly, we can keep possession, but if you are not taking even the smallest of risks when you have the ball, it is very unlikely that the other team is going to get it back, hence all of the 0 – 0 draws we have seen this season, and very likely explains the defensive statistics.

What I have been noticing over the last seven or eight games is that the players seem afraid to attack. It’s almost as though they have been instructed not to play a forward pass unless they are absolutely, one hundred percent certain that it will result in a clear cut chance. But with that kind of mentality, when are you ever going to create chances? There’s always a chance that an opposition player will read it, and intercept the pass.

Could Paul Scholes have been effective in a team like that? Think of any of the fantastic assists that he has provided down the years. How many of them were done without risk? The fact that van Gaal seems to encourage them not to take risks could indicate that he has no belief in his players’ abilities – if that is the case, then it is no wonder they are playing without confidence in themselves, while losing confidence in the manager.

And it’s not just the passing. When was the last time you saw a United player have a crack from around 25 yards? I remember Memphis, I think it was against PSV at home, in a perfect position to do so (and let’s be fair, he has a pretty decent shot), and then he passed it back. What do you think Beckham, Scholes, Giggs or least twenty other players I could name would have done in that situation, with game tied at 0 – 0? I rest my case.

Another thing that bugs me, and a lot of loyal United fans, is the treatment of Ander Herrera. Apart from the fact that Juan Mata seems to play a lot better with him in the side, he is the most creative central midfielder we have got, the one most likely to make something happen in the final third. He should be one of the first names on the team sheet, when fit, yet he is constantly rotated. Is this because he actually tries to create chances? Make no mistake, I honestly believe Fergie would have been able to build an entire team around that lad, which is exactly what van Gaal should be doing. This probably hasn’t gone unnoticed by the top sides in Spain either.

Further proof, if it were needed, of how important he is to the team is provided when you look at the best results and performances of the last eighteen months. There was that wonderful little period last season, where we beat Tottenham, Liverpool, Villa and then City. Herrera was the playmaker in all of those games, but this is another part of the problem. The makeup of that side was decided when Luke Shaw got injured, forcing us to take Blind out of midfield and put him in at left back. So, in essence, the tactical switch that van Gaal was forced into making, that made us play fantastically, happened by accident. There was also the 3 – 0 rout of Everton at Goodison Park earlier this season, a fixture we had previously lost three seasons in a row. Herrera scored and was, once again, magnificent throughout. What more does he need to do to?

One of the biggest criticism’s is how van Gaal regularly plays people out of position, such as Valencia at full back. There has been a running joke that if we brought Ronaldo back, he would be deployed at centre back, because of his height (surprised Fellaini hasn’t been tried there to be honest). This is clearly from his background at Ajax, where players are encouraged to be able to play more than one position. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but why was Di Maria played at centre forward. Because he has a lot of pace? So does Anthony Martial.

Lack of perceived passion is another one. Nobody needs to be reminded what Ferguson was like if the match wasn’t going the way he foresaw it, he would be on that touchline screaming at anybody who would listen. To his credit, so did David Moyes. They cared. But van Gaal just sits there taking down his notes, never leaves his seat, and on Saturday, it looked like Giggs had had enough, and did exactly what the manager should have been doing.

It seems that his coaching methods, like a certain manager in North London, were effective 15 – 20 years ago, but they are too inflexible for the modern game. I never particularly thought Alex Ferguson’s greatest strength was tactical nous, his way of getting results were down to being a great motivator and man manager, but you have to give him credit for trying to adapt to the changing ways of the game. Ok, so his experiment with Scholes behind van Nistelrooy to accommodate Veron in midfield didn’t actually work, but at least he was willing to try new methods. For Louis van Gaal, it seems the word change is not in his vocabulary.

What now?

I won’t lie, I was one of the fans that thought bringing Louis van Gaal in as manager was a brilliant move at the time. I loved watching his Ajax team in the 1990’s, they were as good a club side as you will ever see. In addition, his Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams were also successful, and while I have heard the reports about the football they played not being the greatest, I don’t ever remember it being as poor as it is now. I also believed that whoever took over the United hot seat needed the arrogance of a man who was born to manage the club. Under David Moyes, you got the impression that he didn’t believe he deserved to be there in the first place.

So I was happy, to begin with. He got us back into the Champions League at the first time of asking, and got rid of a lot of players who nobody was sorry to see the back of. As a result, I’ve constantly defended him, from the word go. Whatever happened on a Saturday, I could always find some reason to back him. After Norwich, I have run out of excuses.

OK, so you can find yourself 2 – 0 down at home, to a side near the foot of the table. It happens to every team, especially when the goals are as a result of individual mistakes. What I cannot justify is, when you pull one back with 25 minutes to go, and you don’t even look like finding an equaliser, let alone win the game. How can you defend that?

According to one newspaper, we have had just seven shots on target at Old Trafford in the last two months. I’m firm believer in statistics only telling you half of the story, but there is no sugar coating that one.

Whether or not the United board will give van Gaal more time, and still back him, remains to be seen. They might bring in the recently available José Mourinho, or give Ryan Giggs a go until the end of the season while actively searching for a long term replacement. But one ominous sign is that the clubs official Facebook and Twitter accounts were silent for around 24 hours after the Norwich result. 

Apparently, the last time that happened was after David Moyes’ last game in charge.