Ahead of the 2014 World Cup, incoming Manchester United Manager Louis van Gaal was known as many things. A hard-working man with overwhelming confidence, born of the belief that he is an innovative footballing genius. An arrogant dictator with a huge ego, attaching little value to the opinions of those he doesn’t respect. With van Gaal there has always been a clear and defined fence. On one side sit many of the players and coaches from his incredibly successful sides of the past, holding him in the very highest of regard. On the other, large sections of the World’s footballing press and, most importantly of all where Dutch football is concerned, Johan Cruyff.
Louis van Gaal’s personality dictated that the spotlight would always have been on him in Brazil, at least until his Netherlands side were knocked out. His impending move to Manchester United only served to intensify the scrutiny his every decisive action was put under, not just in England but across the World where the Manchester club remain one of the most closely followed entities in football. The World was watching with wide staring eyes and what they saw showed that Manchester United are not just getting Louis van Gaal, a truly great Manager, but they are getting the very best incarnation of van Gaal we have seen yet.
Making big calls both in and out of games is nothing new for the Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. In the past this has at times caused friction and problems. They haven’t always been so well accepted by the players they would effect or the people in charge of the clubs he managed. In his time as Dutch Coach, especially in Brazil, those decisions at key moments have more often than not worked for him while still keeping the favour of those in and around the group.
Bear in mind this is a manager whose first action as Dutch Coach was to drop the nation’s star-striker Robin van Persie – who would go on to become the team’s Captain and one of van Gaal’s most vocal supporters – in favour of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. There was the change of formation following an injury to van Gaal’s most important player, Roma’s midfield general Kevin Strootman. On the verge of elimination against Mexico van Gaal replaced the Dutch national side’s all time leading goalscorer, van Persie, with Huntelaar before asking his players to change their style of play for the remainder of the game. Then there was the goalkeeping substitution in the dying moments of extra time against Costa Rica which contributed to them going through in a penalty shoot out. And those were just the highlights.
What was key throughout each of those decisions is that the players stayed on side. Van Gaal’s methods can only work when the players believe in what he is trying to achieve. Just days after being left out of the starting eleven early on in van Gaal’s reign as Dutch Coach, van Persie remained impressed by van Gaal’s approach and has praised him publically ever since.
Much was also made of the possible effect on the confidence of first choice Goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen after being replaced by Tim Krul for the vital quarter final shoot-out against Costa Rica. An almost instant reaffirmation from van Gaal that Cillesen was his number one, and two sublime dragbacks when under pressure from Argentinian forwards during the semi-final would suggest that was never really an issue.
It was perhaps only one major decision in the tournament, in that semi-final in Sao Paulo, that failed to come off for van Gaal. He had hoped that replacing a fading van Persie with
Huntelaar once again would give his team the win in extra time. Despite some early pressure from the Netherlands the move failed to produce the winning goal, and in the process robbed van Gaal of that last substitution which would have seen Tim Krul replace Cillessen in goal for the penalty shootout once again. Regardless, the atmosphere within the squad and the belief the players showed in their Coach was a whole World away from what was seen in his second season at Bayern Munich.
Huntelaar once again would give his team the win in extra time. Despite some early pressure from the Netherlands the move failed to produce the winning goal, and in the process robbed van Gaal of that last substitution which would have seen Tim Krul replace Cillessen in goal for the penalty shootout once again. Regardless, the atmosphere within the squad and the belief the players showed in their Coach was a whole World away from what was seen in his second season at Bayern Munich.
Another reason things went wrong for van Gaal in Munich was his refusal to alter and tweak the system during his second season. In van Gaal’s first season with the club a period of more flexible experimentation saw his team settle on a 4231 that led them to a Bundesliga and Pokal Cup double and a Champions League final. That success seemed to, at least in part, deter van Gaal from ever changing the shape of the side again.
Regardless of injuries and suspensions, players were now forced to fit into the formation rather than it adapting to suit them. As other sides started to “find them out” van Gaal refused to tweak. Players were often put into positions they were not comfortable with and it was to the detriment of the side, losing confidence in their own abilities and that of their Coach.
Contrast that with his latest run with the Netherlands. Following an injury to key midfielder Kevin Strootman and a 2-0 friendly defeat to France which saw the Dutch regularly overrun in midfield, van Gaal started to look at other ways to change the side. He had long said Strootman was one of only three players – Robben and van Persie being the others – that were irreplaceable. They simply did not have any other player capable of doing what Strootman did for them, providing the perfect balance between Nigel de Jong and Wesley Sneijder around him, the complete box-to-box midfielder.
Rather than replace him with any one of Fer, Clasie, Wijnaldum or de Guzman, and ask them to adapt their own game, van Gaal adapted the formation. He did what he had failed to do at Bayern Munich and as a result a group of players predicted by many to exit at the group stage went all the way to the semi-finals and were eliminated without losing a game.
There has never been a more clear indicator that Louis van Gaal has learned from past mistakes. For a man that would admit to making very few, that can only point in the direction of a Coach really hitting his peak.
Of course, things could have gone very differently in Brazil for van Gaal. The Netherlands could have lost their opener against Spain before struggling to cope with Chile’s pressing and going out at the group stage. The almost instant pressure van Gaal would have faced in his new role with the Red Devils following perceived failure at the World Cup would have been a major hurdle. The relative over-achievement and avoidance of that pressure has to be credited, at least in part, to the confidence the Coach imparted in his group of players, the decisive actions he took throughout, and the way he adapted his formation to suit both his own players and their opposition.
Combine that with the marginally reduced expectations following a dismal season under David Moyes’ leadership, and there could not be a more perfect time for Louis van Gaal to be taking over at Manchester United.
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