Mixed emotions as news is leaked that Louis van Gaal appears to have lost his job as Man United manager. He seemed convinced that he would stay to see out the third and final year of his contract, but news leaked (allegedly by Jose Mourinho's agent, Jorge Mendes) suggests the FA Cup final win will be his last game in charge.
Looking back at his last two years, it's clear van Gaal has under-achieved. But he hasn't been a total disaster either. Let's look at his transfers first.
He's spent a lot of money and some of them haven't worked out, but van Gaal has reduced the age of the squad and leaves us in a much better place than when he took over. The make-up of the dressing room has dramatically changed, with big leaders in Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra and Fletcher all departing and leaving very big boots to fill - and it's clear Schweinsteiger was brought in to try to replace that experience and winning mentality. Unfortunately he has been injured a lot (one of the fears when we signed him) and has only played well in fits and starts. Crucially, in the big games (e.g. Wolfsburg in CL) he didn't control the game like he was signed to do. Schneiderlin, Darmian, Rojo, Herrera and especially Memphis Depay have struggled to consistently impress, but I believe they are all good players and with a year's experience under their belt they will be better next season - look at the stick Luke Shaw got first year and compare it to the way he started this season before his injury. Having him back next year will be a big plus. The other positive signings have been Daley Blind and very obviously Anthony Martial, who looks like he could be the consistent match winner needed to win premier league titles.
The other big positive is obviously the amount of young players given their chance under van Gaal. Rashford, Lingard, Borthwick-Jackson and Fosu-Mensah have really stood out, but Paddy McNair also looked good last year and there are plenty of others who have broken into the first team. Critics say van Gaal stumbled across these players or had to play them because of injuries, but that is unfair - he specifically said he likes a small squad so young players get the chance when injury came along, and he wouldn't have got rid of so many squad players if he didn't have faith in them. I also think that every player in the squad will have learnt from van Gaal and will ultimately be a better player in the long-run thanks to his coaching - if only for his attention to detail and
So there are definitely things to admire about van Gaal's tenure. Unfortunately, the thing he really fell down on was the playing style. We were simply too risk-adverse and static to break through the packed defences most teams employed, especially at Old Trafford. We actually had a very good record against the bigger clubs , but it was far too easy for most teams to just get ten men behind the ball, allow us possession and be confident that we wouldn't do enough to break through. You can partially blame this on the players, but the lack of shots on goal compared to the huge amount of possession we have suggests the team is told not to shoot unless they are in the perfect position - and this is something van Gaal has to take the blame for. He also never seemed to have a plan B, and whilst it's admirable that he had such faith in his philosophy, he was too slow to recognise when it wasn't working and try to make a positive change.
So overall I'm not too disappointed to see him go, but he deserves credit for the good things he's done and it's great to end with an FA Cup win - a trophy we hadn't won for far too long - so thank you, Louis van Gaal.
