Neville on the back foot straight away
Quote:
Before I can start with the questions, Van Gaal beats me to it. He lays his palm on the desk. “I have a notebook, for you,” he says. “It’s always what I show my players. You can make the system that we’re playing now.”
He is inviting me to prove to him that I understand how United now line-up.
I’m on the back foot. The gauntlet has been thrown down.
“You want me to?” I say.
“Yeah, of course,” he says. “You can do that. Or not?”
By now I feel a #@&%!ly heat. I say: “I’ll have a go, but you’re going to tell me I’m wrong.”
Van Gaal gives me a penetrating look: “You are a little bit ... shy?”
Three-quarters of an hour later, I leave his office feeling drained. This was the first time in 30 years I had been called “shy”.
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Very interesting explanation on why he wants to play with 3 at the back. Looks like it is here to stay although it will probably eventually evolve into a 343
Quote:
One huge part of that change is the switch to three centre-backs, which Van Gaal believes his defenders have embraced. Why 3-5-2, or its variations? “Because it’s more easy to defend. You have to defend the space and the player who is coming into it. When you play like that it’s always less than 15 metres [between the three centre-backs], and then it’s more easy to defend when you communicate good.
“And there are always wide players. And they are always free when they move good, in the right tactical way at the tight tactical time. When I play with three strikers, they are also wide. When you play with full-backs, they are also wide, but they cannot always go. When you play with three defenders, they [the wing-backs] can always go. Both at the same time. That is a risk, but I am a risky coach. Then you have to switch the play. And you know that all the wide players are free. Now, we have to look more for the free players.”
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22-08-2014, 08:09 PM
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