Louis van Gaal

[zudomiriku]

Louis van Gaal is like Jose Mourinho... so why would Manchester United appoint the fiery Dutchman?

Louis van Gaal doesn’t suffer fools gladly, especially those who arrive with press credentials.

Known to bully journalists he feels criticise him — I can’t possibly think who that reminds me of — the Dutch manager doesn’t take kindly to those he feels may be snooping on him either. I know this to my cost.

It was 10 years ago at least — during the 62-year-old’s first stint as national coach — that I arrived at a hotel in the Dutch countryside to interview Ruud van Nistelrooy during a pre-arranged media day.

Dozens of Dutch and international media were there and, given the remote location, I booked myself in to a room for a couple of nights. My office made the reservation on a Daily Mail email and paid in advance.

All was well until I sat down in my room that night to transcribe my interview.


Protective: Van Gaal and Ruud van Nistelrooy chew the fat in a Dutch training session

‘You will have to leave the hotel immediately,’ said the hotel receptionist on the telephone. ‘Mr Van Gaal says you can’t stay here.’

Wondering briefly if the famously grumpy football coach had bought a chain of hotels without anyone’s knowledge, I politely made the point that Van Gaal didn’t own the hotel and that I had made and paid for my reservation weeks ago.

‘Also, I have nowhere else to stay and it’s 8pm,’ I said.

Ten minutes later a knock on my door revealed two hotel security guards. The first walked in and shut my laptop. The second started packing my suitcase. Badly.

It wasn’t long before I was on the road to a ‘nearby’ alternative. It took me 90 minutes to find it and it didn’t serve food.

That story will come as no surprise to supporters of Barcelona. In fact, most ask why Manchester United bothered overlooking Jose Mourinho a year ago if they are now going to bring in someone with many of the same traits.

The Dutchman’s legacy in Spain is of a man who was extremely professional but occasionally rode roughshod over the identity of the club he was managing and ultimately fell out with too many people to stay in the job.


Unafraid to tread on toes: While Van Gaal's success on the pitch saw two La Liga titles and a Copa del Rey, he was a divisive figure off it

The rows came thick and fast during his two spells at the club and nobody was safe from a verbal battering, not even then Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar. ‘He doesn’t know about professional football. He should stick to politics,’ he blasted after Aznar criticised Barca’s preference for foreign players.

Supporters never liked the flood of overseas stars. Van Gaal upset too many supporters with what they saw as his failure to understand the essence of the club.

‘Congratulations, I’m leaving,’ was how he signed off in front of the press, blaming the Catalan sports papers for forcing him out. But it was with a Dutch journalist he most famously got upset.

‘Always negative, never positive,’ he raged at one correspondent, Edwin Winkels, who had written about Van Gaal’s falling-out with Rivaldo. The rant is still a YouTube favourite among Barcelona fans and beats any of Mourinho’s tirades for sheer loss of control.


Spelling it out: Barcelona supporters ask for the resignation of Van Gaal and then preisdent Josep Lluis Nunez in 2000

Van Gaal worked with Mourinho at Barcelona when he arrived in 1997 to replace Bobby Robson who, the season before, had won the Cup-Winners’ Cup, the Spanish Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. He had won the European Cup with Ajax and seemed the perfect fit.

Just as would be the case at United, he inherited a squad full of good players but also full of holes. Players were signed for him and he had to mould them quickly into a side, which he did with some difficulty, suffering a humiliating Champions League group exit, failing to get the better of Newcastle, Dynamo Kiev and PSV.

He turned things around in the second half of the season and won the league and cup double but Barca fans still turned their noses up at the achievement because Real Madrid won the Champions League that year.

What he did show was the strength, and some would say ruthless lack of regard for past achievements, to move on club legends such as Guillermo Amor, Juan Antonio Pizzi and Hristo Stoichkov.

In his defence he did give debuts to Xavi, Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta, who retain a certain fondness for the brusque Dutchman.

He also suffered by comparison with Johan Cruyff, whom supporters always hoped he would emulate having arrived from the same school of football.

His tremendous work-rate was certainly never questioned.


Old times: The fire in Mourinho's belly impressed Van Gaal at Barcelona after the Dutchman replaced Sir Bobby Robson as coach

The verdict on him from Germany is more favourable. One of the more colourful stories of his time at Bayern Munich involved Van Gaal dropping his trousers in front of the squad to demonstrate he had the ‘balls’ to axe any player from his line-up.

There were accusations of dressing-room rollickings which left players on the verge of tears, while Bayern chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge observed: ‘His management style reminds me of that of Felix Magath. It doesn’t win you any friends.’

But most Bayern fans believe his sledgehammer charm and ability to impart tactical discipline is exactly what United’s players need.

He would be the first to agree. ‘Every person has a duty to pass on his knowledge,’ he said when he presented his life’s work in a two-volume book entitled ‘Biography & Vision’.

The 447-page opus weighed in at 3kg (6.6lb) and Bayern Munich directors Uli Hoeness, Christian Nerlinger and Rummenigge felt its full weight when they were personally handed copies at the presentation in what amounted to a ‘read this, you might learn something’ gesture.


Back again: Now in his second stint in charge of Holland, Van Gaal, pictured in between assistants Danny Blind and Patrick Kluivert, will be out of a job after the World Cup

His methods brought results at Bayern and most of the club’s supporters credit him with building the team that won the treble last year under Jupp Heynckes.

The application, the cultivation of young talent, and the slash-and-burn of the club’s dead wood will all be things the 62-year-old can bring to Manchester United. Just don’t expect a smooth ride.

Van Gaal is not a man to bite his tongue for the sake of stabilising the club’s share price. Much like the coach United overlooked last summer, he thrives on confrontation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2612603/Louis-van-Gaal-like-Jose-Mourinho-Manchester-United-appoint-fiery-Dutchman.html

[zudomiriku]

Why Louis van Gaal Is Perfect Fit to Replace David Moyes at Manchester United



So the death bell from the church of Old Trafford rang out aloud on Monday night, as social media exploded with news and rumour.

By Tuesday morning he was gone. An era exterminated before it had a chance to catastrophically fail.

David Moyes' short tenure will always be remembered as a disaster and a mistake. The final roll of Sir Alex Ferguson's dice did not come up with two sixes, and what appeared as a huge gamble in appointing the former Everton boss was proved as a fatal error of judgement.

If this had been one of Fergie's horses running in a big race, the result card would simply read: "Fell at the first fence."

n hindsight, it is easy to individually criticise Sir Alex and Moyes, and also the supporting cast of Ed Woodward and the Glazer family, but it was the toxic combination of all of these elements that has seen United fall to its knees since winning the league championship just twelve months ago.

Fergie's vision of a future Manchester United was one built in his own image, with his man at the helm while he travelled the world as the Godfather of the football club, with the Phil Nevilles and Nicky Butts scurrying around Carrington, all united together and driving forward his dynasty with Moyes.

But grand plans rarely work if the cornerstones are fundamentally flawed.

Moyes was the wrong man for the job. The board did not buy him the players he needed, and Woodward is no David Gill.

Now Ryan Giggs is in charge with Paul Scholes at his side, and as United fans we are drunk on a cocktail made in 1992. There is no real pressure on Giggsy as we complete a season of misery, but at least the future does not look like a post Sir Matt Busby apocalypse, as it did in the 1970s.

United must now move for a manager who is everything that Moyes was not. They need a technician. They need a man with tactical acumen. They need an experienced head who knows how the biggest clubs in the world operate. And they need someone who is available.

Louis van Gaal has won everything in football. He has won domestic league championships seven times in his career with four different clubs in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Van Gaal was also the architect of the revival of Barcelona after four years without a La Liga crown, and he put the building blocks in place for the modern Bayern Munich we see today. Their current dominance in Europe came from his philosophy and ideas.

The one thing missing from Van Gaal's CV is the Premier League title, and at 62 years old his chances of adding this will decrease sharply in quick time.

But United and himself are a perfect marriage. They both need each other to fulfill their current aspirations.

One of the problems Moyes faced was living in the shadow of Ferguson, and finding a way to win. He has never known trophy success, yet was expected to control a set of players awash with medals and winning egos.

Van Gaal will have no such issues. He is Fergie's equal. He will not need guidance or hand-holding. He will not have to convince new signings that he is a legitimate leader, as Moyes would have had to, because the proof is cemented in football history.

Yes, United's board would probably love a Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho at this present time, but Van Gaal is no second-class citizen in comparison.

As a club, United have to evolve now and not continue purely trying to conform to Ferguson's idealism. His status as a director should not influence the team's playing style. Van Gaal will help United move toward this progression, even if his stay at the club is not long-term.



As he did at Barca and Bayern, he can install the attacking flair that the fans demand whilst also laying the foundation for a generation of success. He would make United a collective again rather than a team of individuals, rotating around the axis of Wayne Rooney, like planets orbiting a frozen sun.

Robin van Persie would thrive under Van Gaal, playing for a coach who understands him and the world-class finishing he can provide better than any other player at United. Juan Mata would also excel in the Dutch manager's preferred 4-3-3 system.

The positives are clear in hiring Van Gaal to be the next manager of Manchester United, with the negatives being few and far between: Yes, he will be at the World Cup finals over the next few weeks, but so will most of the best players in the world.

The planning and organisation needed for the next few years will not be impacted by this. Rome was not built in a day.

The next managerial appointment by the Glazers will identify which direction they wish United to go over the next decade. Do they really want success on the pitch? Or do they just want the next big sponsorship deal, with as cheap a wage bill as they possibly can muster?

If they want success and trophies, they will employ Van Gaal. They will allow him the funds to craft a new Manchester United that conforms to the highest of continental standards, rather than one that lives in the past as its major organs slowly start to fail.

As Liverpool prepare to go "Back to the Future" and win their 19th league championship in the coming weeks, it will be once again down to Manchester United to knock them off their newly acquired perch.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2040287-why-louis-van-gaal-is-perfect-fit-to-replace-david-moyes-at-manchester-united

[troy andreas]

Memang sih yah kalau LVG ke United, van Persie kemungkinan besar bisa kembali tajam lagi. Plus macam Kross bisa digaet, Kross pernah main dibawah rezim van Gaal. Buttner juga nantinya bisa terasah kalau gak jadi boyong Shaw.

[Zee de Wazza]

Lagi rame nih di Belanda n twitter, Telegraph mengabarkan jika Louis van Gaal resmi sbg manager United musim depan. Bahkan Ruud Gullit juga udah terang-terangan ngasi ucapan selamat kepada van Gaal n United melalui twitter. Entah ini hoax ato fact yg jelas United musim ini seringkali kebocoran informasi dari media. Kabarnya lagi van Gaal udah kontak ma Ed Woodward n Glazers dan disiapin dana 100 juta pounds buat belanja pemain, van Gaal bilang bakal beli setidaknya minimal 4 pemain besar di 4 posisi mayor. Well we'll see ajalah

[Ucup Carrick]

ada yang bilang kalo nangani United pelatihnya kudu bengis, kejam dan memang ditakuti pemain....
Moyes terlalu ramah...itu dibilang satu wartawan...
dan Van Gaal emang masuk kriteria itu...

[zudomiriku]

Louis van Gaal pushing for swift Man United deal to head off threat from Ryan Giggs

It is with good reason that Louis van Gaal is pushing for Manchester United to confirm him as their next manager. The deal, say senior sources at the club, is all but done after talks last week.

But however confident Van Gaal might appear in his ability as a manager, he knows that four straight wins for Ryan Giggs will heighten the desire — not least among the fans — to see him given the job on a permanent basis.

There is also the danger of Carlo Ancelotti coming back into the reckoning. United continue to consider him out of their reach, but lose heavily at Bayern Munich in the second leg of his Real Madrid side’s Champions League semi-final tomorrow night and the Italian might yet become available.


Dutch of class: Louis van Gaal wants his Manchester United offer tied up to avoid competition from rivals

This is something the United hierarchy are aware of, but the focus remains on a 62-year-old Dutchman who is in a position to devote a bit of thinking time to United before he turns his full attention to Holland’s World Cup campaign.

For now, Giggs is the only real alternative, but for all the excitement of United’s 4-0 win over Norwich, a sharp sense of reality remains in the boardroom.

Giggs was understandably thrilled, as was Sir Alex Ferguson, but Old Trafford’s power brokers know things could get uncomfortable for them if Giggs wins the next three games.

The pressure to stick with him — and his class of ’92 staff — could become intense.It’s why it would make sense to get Van Gaal to put pen to paper in the next few days, even if there remains a degree of uncertainty about who would be his deputies.

It appears that Van Gaal would accommodate Giggs as well as someone like Patrick Kluivert. But there is no guarantee, say sources, that Giggs would accept such a role. He is very much his own man, as are Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville.

If Van Gaal wants them to be part of United’s future, he might need to demonstrate a bit of charm as well as strong leadership qualities.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2614469/Louis-van-Gaal-pushing-swift-Man-United-deal-head-threat-Ryan-Giggs.html

[troy andreas]

Kali kedua LVG digosipkan akan jadi manager, kemarin baca bahwa ternyata tahun 2009 LVG pernah mengakui saat SAF mau pensiun tahun 2002 ia ditawari posisi manager. Walau dibuku SAF yang hanya di akui SGE, kalau dia yang ngomong bisa saja hal tsb benar.

Saat ini gosipnya makin kencang, sama kencangnya saat Moyes akan gantikan SAF, bahkan Gullit sudah kasi selamat. Okelah kalo LVG yang akan jadi suksesor, £100m modal untuk rombak tim, menanti siapa yang akan dibeli plus siapa yang akan dijual.

Tinggal tunggu berita resminya.

[fredrian.seven]

Ada 2 berita bagus tentang LvG. Lumayan buat lebih mengenal dia klo seandainya nanti jadi ditetapkan sebagai manajer United.

______________________

Manchester United players will find Van Gaal 'difficult' - Mehmet Scholl
theguardian.com

• Ex-Bayern assistant says coach has 'problems with big players'
• 'He is a genius … and exactly the right coach for United'

Manchester United have been warned that Louis van Gaal's potential appointment as manager could put him on collision course with senior players such as Wayne Rooney.

Mehmet Scholl, who won eight Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and was their reserve team coach under Van Gaal, believes the Dutchman is a "genius coach" who will guarantee success for United. But he is unsure how long this will last.

Van Gaal is expected to be appointed by the middle of next week – he wants a deal in place by 7 May when he joins his Dutch-based players to begin their World Cup preparation. And Scholl told the Guardian: "He's very strict and severe. So the players just have the chance to follow him or they are out and he takes the next players. He's very good with young players. I think everywhere he was he had some problems with big players and the staff."

Van Gaal, who is the Holland coach until after the summer's World Cup, has previously managed Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern during his club career. Though he has won championships with all of these teams, the 62-year-old's longest tenure was his six years at Ajax before spending three at Barca, four with AZ and two at Bayern.

Asked how Van Gaal has achieved this success if he can fall out with senior players and staff, Scholl said: "There are 26, 27 players and he is looking for the 14 to follow him – 14, 15, 16 to follow. His thing is not the motivation [man-management]. He's good in motivation but this is not his main character thing.

"His thing is really working on the pitch – that's brilliant. And that's how the players learn. You know by yourself that if you learn from somebody you are curious, you want to learn more.

" Some of the players, I can tell you, like Rooney, I don't think he has to learn anything more. So that will be difficult for him if the coach says: 'You have to do it in a completely different way. Whatever you did until now, change it.'"

While Rooney is United's highest-paid player, Van Gaal enjoys a close relationship with Robin van Persie, the club's next best-rewarded footballer, naming his countryman as Holland captain, and the pair were regularly seen together at matches during Van Persie's recent recuperation from a knee injury. "I think the education is the thing," said the former midfielder Scholl. "The thing Van Gaal teaches is the same thing Van Persie learned from the very beginning. So there, I think, there will be no big problem. Of course he is a big player but he is a Dutch player. That's the thing and the difference to Rooney."

Asked about Van Gaal often staying for only truncated periods with clubs, Scholl said: "Yeah, I think he's for the moment exactly the right coach for United and United will be successful again with him. That's without doubt. That will come. The thing is he is very – he wants a lot of things from the players and, for the players, it is not easy to satisfy him all the time and so after several months, one or two years, it gets less what the players learn.

"We're not computers. Sometimes the brain is full. And he still wants [you] to learn, to learn, to learn, high level, every day. Is it annoying? No. It's exhausting. They lose power. That's what happened at Bayern Munich.

"And that's why he often picks young players because they learn and learn and learn. I don't know if he is working still the same. I just can tell you what happened in Bayern Munich."

Van Gaal's CV shows four Eredivisie titles, two in La Liga, one Bundesliga, the Champions League and Uefa Cup plus various other trophies for the clubs he has led. "He's a brilliant football coach. The way he likes his team to play is absolutely brilliant," Scholl, 43, said. "His main thing is to keep the ball, to be proactive not passive. He is a genius, he's one of the best I've ever seen on the pitch.

" For the big stars it is not easy to work with him but for the young players he is brilliant. He is brilliant on the pitch and wants them to learn all the time, wants them to learn. Even the old players."

[fredrian.seven]

What Manchester United could expect from Louis Van Gaal as their manager
telegraph.co.uk

These four key aspects of the Dutchman's coaching style would define a potential new reign at Old Trafford

Training
Unlike Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis Van Gaal often takes training himself and is hands-on with coaching. His training sessions are generally 100 per cent ball-based, with the emphasis on improving players’ technique, rather than focusing solely on fitness. Van Gaal also pays close attention to his opponents and often holds 11 v 11 training sessions on Thursdays and Fridays before games. He places great importance on intelligence and favours players he believes to be the smartest. With his preference for a high defensive line - a tactic that has been problematic for some foreign coaches in the Premier League - defenders need to be particularly switched on to his methods and demands. Despite his age, sources close to Van Gaal insist he innovates and constantly tries to profit from the latest methods, science and theories.

Transfers
Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has lined up a host of transfer targets while also searching for a manager. That, however, may be a risky strategy if Van Gaal is appointed, as the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich man has a history of trusting only ‘his’ players.
Bayern spent significant money on Mario Gómez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk before Van Gaal joined the German club, but he initially refused to play the pair because they did not fit into his plans. Van Gaal does not care about reputations or transfer fees, which could be good news for United’s young players. At Bayern, he promoted both Thomas Müller and Holger Badstuber from the club’s academy.
Having been used to working with a sporting director in the past, Van Gaal may relish the autonomy United’s structure could give him. Equally, however, he could quickly become annoyed at working with a relative novice such as Woodward.

Temperament
The Dutch have a joke: What is the difference between Van Gaal and God? God knows he is not Van Gaal. Nicknamed the Iron Tulip, Van Gaal rates himself with good reason. His self-confidence is often interpreted as arrogance, but those who have worked with him describe another side to the 62-year-old’s tough personality. Van Gaal is said to communicate well with his players and is willing to accept different personalities among his squad. He also springs the odd surprise, as his former Bayern Munich players will confirm: Van Gaal exposed his genitals to them as part of a team-talk. Players cross Van Gaal at their peril, with punctuality one of his biggest bugbears. Turn up late once and get told off, twice and you get dropped.

Tactics
Van Gaal has an attacking philosophy. His Holland team scored 34 goals in World Cup qualification, the second most in Europe behind Germany. His favoured formation has traditionally been 4-3-3, but he has also played 4-2-3-1 and even 3-3-3-1 at Bayern Munich. Pep Guardiola, Joe Mourinho and Marcelo Bielsa have all credited Van Gaal with helping their coaching education. Ronald de Boer, who played under Van Gaal, says that while Johan Cruyff was primarily concerned with style and identity over results, Guardiola related more to Van Gaal’s insatiable desire for success. He tries to combine a box-to-box runner and a traditional No10 in midfield.

[zudomiriku]

Louis van Gaal turns players against him, claims Manchester City chief Ferran Soriano

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has sparked a potential row with neighbours United after claiming their prospective new coach Louis van Gaal has a habit of turning players against him.

United are on the verge of agreeing terms with Dutch veteran Van Gaal and hope to confirm him as the long-term replacement for David Moyes next Wednesday.

However, City’s Spanish chief executive Soriano - who worked at one of Van Gaal’s former clubs Barcelona - believes the 62-year-old is a confrontational coach who risks alienating players wherever he works.


Bold: Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano (right) said Louis van Gaal turns players against him

Soriano said: ‘If you treat your people badly, they remember. One day you make an error and they kill you. I’ve seen this in many clubs.

‘Louis van Gaal has been a very good coach in many clubs but his style is very difficult. The same thing happened to him in Barcelona as in Bayern Munich.
‘He is very tough, people don’t like him, but he wins. And one day you don’t win — and when you don’t win, everybody that is angry with you will come back to you and try to kill you.

‘In the movies this works, in real life it doesn’t.’

Van Gaal, currently coach of the Holland national team, had two spells at Barcelona. His second ended when he was sacked in January 2003. Soriano joined the club later that year and stayed until 2008.

Soriano made his comments at a conference in March, before he knew about United’s interest in Van Gaal. He added: ‘Before you decide how to manage your team, decide what they need.

‘Do you need to be more direct? Do you need to delegate more? Do you need to be more of a coach? Are you able to manage people? How much do you know about your job? How can you be a leader if you don’t manage people well and don’t know what you are talking about?’

Soriano also said in his 2012 book Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance: ‘Louis van Gaal has won titles with different teams, big and small, and he’s thought to have little empathy and social skills.

‘I couldn’t help but smile when I heard Uli Hoeness, Bayern Munich’s [then] technical director, explain why Van Gaal wouldn’t continue to coach the Bavarian team: “Van Gaal doesn’t listen, it has to be whatever he says”.

‘It seems his reputation is justified.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2618156/Louis-van-Gaal-turns-players-against-claims-Manchester-City-chief-Ferran-Soriano.html