Rival Watch™ 2014-2015 Special: The Tactical Genius

Van Gaal said he should only be judged after three months. First let's remember what his predecessor had achieved in the same time:

The Chosen One

please log in to view this image

• Leads Man Utd to victory at Wembley in the FA Community Shield
• Wins first league game 4-1 away at Swansea to go top of the league
• Draws first home game 0-0 against title-challengers Chelsea
• Loses 1-0 to title-challengers Liverpool at Anfield
• Beats Crystal Palace 2-0 at home
• Loses 4-1 away to 2013/14 champions Man City
• First home loss of the season 2-1 to West Brom
• Won at Sunderland 2-1 with Januzaj brace on first PL start
• Draw 1-1 at home against Southampton
• Fight back against Stoke to win 3-2 with substitute Hernandez winner

At the same time Moyes had Champions League to deal with, remaining undefeated in Europe with home wins against Bayer Leverkusen (4-2) and Real Sociedad (1-0) and an away draw against Shakhtar Donetsk (1-1)

Moyes also had a perfect record in the League Cup with wins against Liverpool (1-0) and Norwich (4-0)



Since that time Man Utd have bought

Mata £37.1m
Blind £13.8m
Di Maria £59.7m
Rojo £16m
Shaw £27m
Herrera £29m
----------------
Total £182.6m

Man Utd have also commited significant financial resources on Rooney's new contract (£85m over 5.5 years) and the Falcao deal (£6m paid plus another £43.5m agreed). The result...


The Tactical Genius

please log in to view this image

• Loses 1-2 to Swansea in first home game
• Draws 1-1 away to relegation candidates Sunderland
• Draws 0-0 away to relegation candidates Burnley
• Beats relegation candidates QPR 4-0 at home
• Loses 5-3 away to newly promoted Leicester
• Beats West Ham 2-1 at home thanks to wrongly disallowed late equaliser
• Beats Everton 2-1 at home thanks to a missed Baines penalty
• Drew 2-2 away at West Brom

So after 8 PL games, Van Gaal has won an impressive 12 points compared to Moyes' awful 11 points, albeit with far easier fixtures and the benefit of up to £230m spent on the squad since then

In the equivalent fixtures, Moyes picked up 21 points winning all the games except against Everton, who raised their performance at Old Trafford for obvious reasons and won 0-1 (Oviedo 86')

Tobes has argued that comparing fixtures is unfair because Moyes' Man Utd had the benefit of momentum and form since they were played at different times of the season. In reality

• Moyes beat Swansea at home on the back of a loss to Tottenham (Van Gaal lost)
• Moyes beat Sunderland away on the back of a loss to West Brom (Van Gaal drew)
• Moyes beat Fulham away, instead of Van Gaal's 0-0 at Burnley
• Moyes beat Cardiff at home after losing at Chelsea, instead of Van Gaal's victory against 20th-placed QPR
• Moyes won at Norwich instead of losing to Leicester with 5 goals shipped
• Moyes beat West Ham at home playing his 3rd game of the week (in a month of 9 games due to Champions League and League Cup success)
• Moyes' narrow loss to Everton came after a draw at Tottenham

Van Gaal's only other competition was the League Cup, which Man Utd embarrassingly crashed out 4-0 to League One's MK Dons, after taking 72 minutes to have a shot on target



Is Van Gaal better than Moyes so far? You decide.

(But the answer is no.)

please log in to view this image

 

Nice crystal ball you've got there

 

Must be using the same one all the rest of you are

 

Your a star astro

 

No need for this

 

Top thread Astro, great research


Hope you have set up your defence perimeters though!

 

10/10 for effort

 

Good read

 

So tempted to move to the United board

 

Well done you can copy and paste

Shame you will still finish below us even after how bad we have been

 

Proof?

 

Might do it

 

Impossible. Ours says we'll finish above you guys

 

its obvious.....

only one man was chosen by the great one and only one man had a huge banner put up at old toilet

 

A lot of effort's gone into this thread so fair play. Posting it on the United board suggests an unhealthy obsession with a rival club.

 

You are an evil bastard, Astro.
I see you've caught one already.

 

Astro has lots of time on his hands and an obsession to feed, he could probably tell us lots about Liverpool with stats and such. The one thing that stands out in this bunch of stats is that Pool could really do with someone as good as Moyes in Europe.

 

Hmmm, cross board thread yet some posts don`t seem to show up on here

Selective editing?

 

The man you need in Europe according to Astro`s stats

 

Absolutely what's van gaal done in Europe this year anyway