Of course we have, a great defence is the foundation of it. You've got to score goals to get the points though.
Funnily enough he used too. However, like all good managers, he's evolved and adapted. He changed his entire view in 2008 when he join AZ and showed more balls than any Dutch coach has in decades when he changed the style of play to suit the players not the Dutch way. Before that he had one plan. Attack. I like a manager who is willing to win ugly or who gets his side picking up points when things aren't perfect. These are the guys with multiple medals, not your one offs. Van Gaal used to be a manager who like Pep, had only one tactic, a bloody good one but as we've seen with his time at Barcelona (second) and his first stint with Holland, its great until you need a plan B. He's now able to adapt. Wouldn't be surprised to see a similar path taken by Pep. His style really has to have everyone firing and playing well, eventually he will have to adapt his own philosophy as the game progresses.
Indeed. I'm confident they will come as well. Were linked with Perez, the Newcastle striker and Mane for January. I would take Mane no question but don't know anything about Perez so can't comment. Also Filipe Anderson but he's south American so not sure we should risk that in January. Poor lad will freeze.
Anyone read Bastians take on LvG, he is probably better suited to comment than most. Schweinsteiger: Van Gaal will succeed Bastian Schweinsteiger is convinced Louis van Gaal will bring success to Manchester United and sees parallels with the manager’s trophy-winning spell at Bayern Munich. After the weekend’s results in the Barclays Premier League, the Reds sit fourth in the table and just two points behind the leaders, after a 2-0 home win over West Bromwich Albion that extended the clean sheets sequence to five games in all competitions. Schweinsteiger accepts the team still has room for improvement but, having played in van Gaal’s 2009/10 Double-winning Bayern team, he is confident the Reds are heading in the right direction under the boss. "I recognise similarities between Louis van Gaal here and at Bayern Munich," Schweinsteiger said. "In Munich, it took a while before the team understood exactly how we wanted to play football. But in the end we won the Bundesliga title and made it to the Champions League final. "You have to be patient. But, of course, during that you have to win, you have to get results and you have to score. I think we are in a good way. We can improve but the team spirit here is great. "It is not about October or November – it is about May. I am sure Louis will bring success to United. I am convinced that will happen but we have to do our work and we have to improve." While goals haven’t been in abundant supply recently, Schweinsteiger insists United deserve credit for the manner of Saturday’s victory over a West Brom side who conceded for only the second time away from home in the league this season. But he also admits the Reds need to find ways of overcoming defensive-minded teams more comfortably, especially at Old Trafford. "It is difficult to play against teams with the kind of defensive strategy West Brom had but I think we did well offensively," the Germany midfielder continued. "When you are playing a team who defend with 10 men, it is not easy to find the gaps. There is still room for improvement but we did improve on breaking a team down, and we didn't give many chances away. "It is not exclusive to England," he continued. "In Munich in the league or the Champions League it was exactly the same. Bayern drew 0-0 recently against Frankfurt because Frankfurt were defending with a lot of players. It happens but you have to find solutions and this is where we can still improve to make it easier for ourselves. "Football is not only about attack. There are teams with different game styles and they also win titles. But I think especially in home matches we have to press and go forward. "It is very important we win our matches at the moment because the league is very tight. And it was important to go into the international break with a win because the last two times were not very nice."
He sums the whole thing up very well. You can't put a price on what he brings to United. (well, apart from about ten million quid of course)
Lovely watching Spain tonight. Only a friendly but just lovely football. Surprised ppl can't see the difference between Spain's possession football and Van Gaal's possession football. But apparently you can't play attacking, one touch possession football as that sonehow equates to losing games. Bcos apparently Spain don't defend. And yet Casillas has now managed to keep 100 clean sheets in international football. Defence with entertaining football? Go figure.
To be fair, Spain has got very good players used to playing this type of possession football, with the right blend of possession penetration risk taking and defending. The way they quickly regained possession of the ball was amazing. Reminds us of Barcelona. United's ponderous play owes yes a lot to the manager but also to the players too. LVG has made no secret of his search for more speedy front line players. I cannot believe he tells his players not to penetrate but it is obvious that the confidence to take a risk is not there...yet.
I remember LVG trying attacking, one touch possession football early on. We got our arses handed to us by Leicester City 5-3. I don't remember it being lovely to watch I think he learnt that our defense was weak and used our midfield to shore them up. As a direct result reduced our attack. It's all about balance. De Gea is world class. Smalling is progressing but IMHO we miss a Bruce/Pallister or Vidic/Ferdinand partnership to free up the attack.
He needs to start playing Jones and Smalling together regularly. Smalling has become an exceptional centre half, Jones needs to step up now and become the Bruce or Vidic of the partnership. If he doesn't succeed then we buy in the summer. Regardless if what any apologist says, it's impossible for me to accept van Gaal is telling his players to go out and play in the same manner as Spain and Barca yet the players decide en mass to ignore this and plod on at their own pace Sorry, no chance.
You havent read my post Mark. I'm getting a bit tired of having to go over it again and again and again. No disrespect but it's as if ppl are so narrow minded (either that or incapable) of understanding. Spain ARE defensively sound regardless of their attacking football. We didnt lose to Leicester bcos of our attacking football We lost bcos we were defensively naive. We are now very good defensively and LVG deserves credit for that. But as Spain showed last night you can play entertaining possession football while also maintaining a good defence. To suggest you cant have one with the other is just nonsense. The irony in all this is I seem to hold a higher opinion of our players (and what they're capable of) than the LVG apologists.
We lost to Leicester as we were still ****ing about with 5-3-2 and the players looked totally confused. The experiment ended after that game.
Totally agree. And as the current team have built some defensive confidence with clean sheets - now might be the best time to test him with a run of games? I would love Jones to be a success but he does seem very injury prone. Jones "has suffered back, knee, ankle, hamstring and shin problems in recent years - missing 59 games as a result" "Now he wants to forge a successful partnership with Chris Smalling at the heart of United's defence .... <Man city> derby draw was only the 12th time the two have started as a pair at the heart of a four-man defence."
Ferguson is often brought up when comments are made about our current style of play, people love to remind us that his teams occasionally served up dross. They did yes, I agree. They also occasionally had their arses kicked. If memory serves me though, we didn't revert to ultra cautious pedestrian football when Newcastle put five past us or Southampton put six past us. I wish people would stop using Leicester as an excuse for how we are playing. It's irrelevant. Or should be.
United have never lost when Jones and Smalling have started as the centre back pairing. The majority of non-United fans will tell you that they are both ****. I consider anyone who says that to be utterly clueless about football.
Fergie played dull football when he didn't have the players to play attractive football. LVG has spent a lot of money to build a team of robots who are stifled creatively.
Exactly. One now IS a great player, the other has the potential to be so. The likes of Merson and Lawrenson perpetrate these myths and people swallow it. Typical modern football fans, they haven't the first idea what they are watching so repeat what the likes of those two ****wits say.
These forums are all about opinions. The world would be a boring place if we all had the same opinion. It appears that if anyone has a different opinion to yours they "have not read your post" "narrow minded" "incapable of understanding" "LVG apologists". I think this says more about you than me.
Hey? Why are you getting upset. I'm all for differing opinions. But if you're going to respond (and quote) one of my posts, at least have the courtesy of reading it first. And if you are actually interested in engaging in dialogue on a football forum then respond to my last post instead of making the ar5y comment above. Do you actually have an answer?
