Quote:
Originally Posted by taff
i think we will be a lot richer for van gaal's time with us - more technically accomplished players, more confident youngsters, a squad with experience of adapting and working to a system. look at barca and bayern now; both operating at a high level on foundations that he put in place.
that said, i think united perhaps need a more radical overhaul in playing style than van gaal is inclined to offer at this stage of his career. something beyond outright possession football, or 4-4-2, or 'united always play with wingers'. it's why i would hope united would look to a much younger manager with his own ideas as a successor - pochettino is a good example, but there will no doubt be others. appointing another old boy with little to prove risks turning the club over to history and preventing it from moving forward. i'm undecided on giggs, if only because he has a foot in both camps: it feels like united are clinging too readily to the past when there is greater potential to evolve.
whatever the situation now, if van gaal has brought an outsider's perspective to united then i think his tenure has been a good move, to shake away the idea of the club as some sort of ageing politburo. a lot depends on our next move, but the opportunity is there. this transition has afforded us that.
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Yeah, good post. I mentioned it recently but I got the impression that the way the club was run towards the end under Ferguson may have been unsustainable without Ferguson. Part of the reason the hierarchy apparently like LvG is the great off-field changes he's made to how the club is run, which is something Moyes hadn't offered outside of his scouting bunker.
People talk ignorantly about LvG's age being an impediment to his ability to lay foundations at United, but he's always been ahead of the game and still is. Which is why the current managers of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Ajax, Italy etc as well as Mourinho are students of his.
Wenger got it right when he called it disrespectful the way LvG, whatever his faults, is discussed, as did the
Guardian recently.