Posts Tagged ‘Louis van Gaal’

Manchester United’s Problems Begin And End With Ed Woodward, They Just Include Van Gaal

Posted: January 24, 2016 in Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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It has reached the stage, at Old Trafford, where Ed Woodward has to put aside his pride.

Having employed David Moyes who, seven months into his reign, was deemed a failure then surely, eighteen months into his reign and with an inferior record, van Gaal must also be deemed a failure.

Up to now, van Gaal has had eleven months longer than Moyes in the job and roughly ÂŁ200 million more to spend. Yet his record is worse. Why is he still there?

It has to be an over simplification to think that Woodward’s pride has anything to do with it, yet what is the alternative? It is understandable that he does not want to sack another one of his appointments, it wouldn’t make him look good with his bosses. Yet these are the bosses who put him in charge of football matters so this is also THEIR mistake. He has to do what is right for the club, not what is right for his ego.

Ed woodward is very successful in marketing. He has brought millions into the Old Trafford bank account through sponsorship deals with many multi-national companies around the world. He was responsible for the ÂŁ750 million deal with Adidas. So his value, in that respect, should not be underestimated.

Where it started to go wrong was when the Glazers assumed, wrongly, that Woodward knew anything about the game. (more…)

Pep Guardiola Will Be At Manchester United Or Manchester City NEXT Season

Posted: January 22, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Reportedly the most coveted coach in the world, Pep Guardiola enjoyed a successful career as a player at Barcelona and then went on to have a very successful career as their manager.

He surprised a lot of people by choosing to leave the club at the height of their success, citing the need to prove to himself that he could achieve the same levels elsewhere.

He then surprised even more people by opting to go to Germany to become the new manager of Bayern Munich. What was particularly surprising about this move was that he was following a manager who had just won the treble of Bundesliga title, German Cup and Champion’s League. Jupp Heynckes was going to be almost impossible to follow and so it turned out. Pep was successful but, at the time of writing, hadn’t been able to win the Champion’s League and neither, therefore, the treble.

It was no great surprise when he announced that he would be leaving Bayern Munich as he wanted to manage in the English Premier League. I think he found managing Bayern relatively easy and it appeared that they had even less competition in the Bundesliga than Barcelona had in La Liga during his time there. It did not turn out to be the challenge he expected and must have been quite boring, even for him, to know that, barring miracles being bestowed upon other clubs, Bayern Munich would have the league wrapped up by around Christmas. (more…)

Jose Mourinho In Limbo After Chelsea Exit

Posted: January 21, 2016 in Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Jose sits with his medical team and ponders the future!)

Jose Mourinho is in limbo. If we believe all the reports then he wants the Manchester United job. If we believe further reports then the reason he isn’t the current manager is because of Sir Bobby Charlton. He is old school and doesn’t like the idea of the club’s manager being headline news most of the season.

If it was only for all the good things, he would probably be fine with it but Jose, as is his wont, tends to make the news for virtually everything he does and, let’s be honest, it isn’t always the stuff used to set as examples for schoolboys to follow.

From arguments with his medical team to arguments with his players, Jose isn’t too fussy and even manages to include other managers in his occasional outbursts.

Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce and Manuel Pellegrini to name but three, have all crept into Mourinho’s radar of people he loves to hate.

The problem for United is actually quite simple. They have tried David Moyes. A likeable, non-confrontational Scot who, some people thought, would be ideal for United. He wasn’t because the job was too big for him.

So they are now trying van Gaal. After all, he is a winner, more like the “United type” than Moyes. He knows what it is like to win Championships and Champions Leagues titles.

Having spent ÂŁ258 million on new recruits you could be forgiven for thinking that van Gaal would be doing somewhat better than his predecessor. He isn’t! His record is almost identical to that of Moyes except he didn’t last as long in the Champion’s League, with Moyes having taken United to the quarter final stage. (more…)

Is Wayne Rooney Back?

Posted: January 17, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(and, if so, where has he been?)

Is Wayne Rooney back to what passes as his best nowadays? Having scored a couple against Newcastle and now the winner against Liverpool, United fans could be forgiven for thinking that he is on the way back.

The truth is probably that he isn’t! At 30 years of age he has certainly lost some of the pace he never really had and watching him push the ball past players then resort to shoving them when he can’t outrun them is, frankly, quite embarrassing.

He has been tried in a deeper position at United at the expense of players who are better in the role and, with the exception of a decent range of passes, he brings little to the table in this position. The other problem with this is the fact that United already have more than enough midfielders.

He kept his place in the team for many weeks due to van Gaal’s illogical reasoning that “the captain doesn’t get dropped”. So, for quite a large part of the season, United effectively played with ten men. Yes, he was THAT bad!

Now he has found his shooting boots again he can, deservedly, be picked to play upfront, either alongside Martial in a 4-4-2 or on his own in a 4-2-3-1. (more…)

Will Eden Hazard Still Be At Chelsea Next Season?

Posted: January 8, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The answer to the above question is looking more and more likely to be “no”.

Having, apparently, fallen out with Jose Mourinho, this feeling now appears to have spread to the rest of the club. What has happened to a player who, only last season, was being placed behind only Messi and Ronlado in the world’s best players list?

We know that under Mourinho he was sometimes played out of his favourite position. We also know that he was expected to carry out defensive duties by tracking back and not letting the opposition wing backs have a free run. What we also know is that he didn’t like that side of the game.

Ideally, Hazard would play for a team whereby he was told to stick himself around the halfway line and wait until the hard working defenders managed to get the ball to him. Then he would be able to do what he does best, whether that be run at the defence through the middle, or on either wing.

It is unlikely that he will get his wish under Hiddink, who is also a bit of a taskmaster and expects his players to work hard for the ball. Whether or not Hazard sticks around to see if there will be a change of manager in the Summer is anybody’s guess but, at the moment, he is not of that mind. (more…)

What Next For The Four Old Men? (Hiddink 69, Wenger 66, Van Gaal 64, Pellegrini 62)

Posted: January 7, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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If we are to believe everything that we read, which we don’t, then all four of the above mentioned managers could be out of their jobs at the end of the season.

Guus Hiddink is an interim manager at Chelsea. He may do very well and be offered the job on a longer term basis. The question is, does he want it? He seems to be quite happy to flit in and out of jobs for short periods of time. He has also expressed a desire to spend more time fishing, which a short term contract would allow him to do at virtually anytime he wished.

Since his unsuccessful flirtations with Russia and the Netherlands national sides, Guus may feel that he is getting a little past it for the big stage. Although international management does not carry the day to day pressures of a domestic team, the whole weight of a country is on the shoulders of the coach when attempting to qualify for a tournament or even win one, so it is no surprise he has not leapt straight back into that side of the game. With Chelsea, he can walk away should he so decide. I think he will. (more…)

Manchester United Are Nearly There

Posted: January 4, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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It always seems to me, nowadays anyway, that Manchester United are never far away from having a team to challenge for trophies.

Never mind who is manager, as long as it is somebody with experience of a big club, who knows what he is doing, the manager shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether or not the club wins trophies, the players should.

When you consider the players they have and the money they have spent the only surprise is that it is taking so long to get things right on the pitch.

Louis van Gaal and the United fans don’t need me to tell them that more goals are required but at least the signs were promising against Swansea, when Martial and Rooney both scored.

I am still not a lover of playing too many people out of position and think that the great teams of the past, not just at United, have usually had specialists in each position.

It does appear though, that United are looking at strikers, centre backs and full backs during this transfer window. That is not to say they will buy all three, but at least they seem to be looking which is an acknowledgement that they know where they can improve. (more…)

What Has Happened To The Traditional Top Four?

Posted: January 3, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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To supporters of other clubs, what I mean by the “traditional top four” is the four clubs who have finished in those positions the most times in the recent past.

To try and appear unbiased I will take them in alphabetical order:

Arsenal

They have obviously decided that they need to reverse the usual pattern of their season. This was only evident when they lost their first home game. Arsene quickly realised that the season would be the same as any other if he didn’t do something.

So they started winning regularly, something the Gooners fans don’t normally experience until after the Christmas period. By this time, Arsenal have usually left it too late to win the title.

This has proven so successful that Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League, two points ahead of Leicester City in second. They are still in the Champion’s League, just, thanks to an epic display against Olympiacos in the final group game. (more…)

Manchester United Flatter To Deceive

Posted: January 2, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The transfer window has been open for two whole days and Manchester United still haven’t bought a striker! Is it not obvious to van Gaal that goals win games and decent strikers score goals?

So to the home game against Swansea where Laborious Louis had the chance to improve upon the Chelsea performance by winning.

Yet again United’s team selection was a sign of things to come.

Inexplicably, Wayne Rooney had been named as the man-of-the-match in the previous game against Chelsea. He hadn’t scored, as usual, so I guess he got it because he managed to raise his game from rubbish to average.

Van Gaal must have been sufficiently impressed because he decided his misfiring captain should remain at centre forward despite lacking the obvious requirement of goals.

As is the norm nowadays, van Gaal put his top scorer on the wing thereby limiting any chances he would have of increasing his tally. He played Ashley Young as a wing back, again. He played Daley Blind as a wing back, again. I get the impression that, if he got the chance to manage Barcelona again, he would play Messi, Neymar and Suarez as the back three. (more…)

What Next For Jose Mourinho?

Posted: January 1, 2016 in Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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(Jose tells the team how many players he wants on the bus!)

If it is true that Jose Mourinho wants to stay in England as a manager, he may have to set his sights a little lower than he is used to.

It would appear that his first choice of club would be Manchester United, but the noises coming from Old Trafford are not encouraging for him. If we are to believe the press then Louis van Gaal had to win one of his last two games to keep his job. He failed to do so but remains in situ at United. This says one of two things. Either the press were wrong, (perish the thought!), or United don’t have a successor lined up. If the latter is the case, then Mourinho is not in the running for the job.

Further, more recent rumblings, supposedly emanating from Old Trafford, suggest that the players would like Diego Simeone from Atletico Madrid. I am not aware that Simeone has been consulted on this matter but I suggest it may be a job he could summon up some interest in, despite his lack of English. In actual fact, having no command of English never appeared to be a problem for the likes of Mauricio Pochettino or Harry Redknapp. (more…)

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