Louis van Gaal was Sir Alex Ferguson's first world-class coach to take over manchester United after his retirement.
There is no doubt about this.
Although in his two years at Manchester United, he only led Manchester United to an FA Cup title trophy.
But he promoted Pereira, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Mensa, the Red Devils' academy players. Among them, Jesse Lingard has become a king, and Marcus Rashford has become the core of the team.
Although his iron fist and the great purge of the team have made many fans express their dissatisfaction with him, it has to be admitted that Van Gaal's tactical achievements are absolutely top-notch. It was he who brought United the style of play of a three-centre-back, as well as the big-circle tactics tailored for Manchester United.
"Van Gaal in Rooney's Eyes"
Last year, Manchester United legends assure Asoney Warney said in an interview with The Times that of the managers he has worked with in his career, he admires Louis van Gaal's tactics the most.
He believes that Van Gaal's tactics are more advanced than that of legendary coach Ferguson. This may cause many fans to resent, after all, Ferguson's achievements at Manchester United are completely incomparable to Van Gaal.
But Rooney doesn't think so, and recently, in an interview with Alain Shearer, Rooney reiterated this view again, and he still believes that Van Gaal's tactics are better.
Rooney's feelings are certainly deeper than those of us fans, after all, he can get closer to the tactical core of Van Gaal, and this empathy may not be able to find resonance in the fans.
Fans rely only on the team's performance to deduce how the team's tactics are, and since Rooney so agrees with Van Gaal's tactical philosophy, we may wish to find out.
"Louis van Gaal's pressing tactics have long been implemented at Manchester United"
The core idea of Van Gaal's tactics is actually oppression.
You heard that right, it's the tactical style of Manchester United's new manager Lonnick.
What Van Gaal needs is a hard-working and astute player, in the front court, oppression and counter-oppression are the top priorities, and the no. 10 player, this traditionally organized midfielder is the bridgehead and key to the team's oppression.
This is why Van Gaal is particularly fond of "erwa".
From Ajax, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, and to the Dutch national team, Van Gaal has already stressed that the team must carry out the first press after conceding a goal.
It was also the first change he brought to Manchester United. During Ferguson's tenure, United were a winning general, and the overall ability of the team and the championship mentality of the players allowed Manchester United to have an advantage in the game, and this strong pressure had no room for survival in Manchester United.
And Manchester United when Louis van Gaal arrived, although players and fans were reluctant to admit it, in fact, Manchester United had lost its dominance over the league.
The tactics of oppression and counter-oppression have a soil for survival.
If we look at the timing, this overall pressure system of the team began as early as the Van Gaal era, And Lonnick is only reinforcing this tactical concept.
In Van Gaal's tactical thinking, players need to have good passing skills under their feet, and active and effective running is also crucial.
The same is true for defenders, although the Premier League defenders were once a bunch of rough guys, but Van Gaal advocated the team's long pass at the back, and Blind, who was in the squad at the time, had the ability to accurately play the ball at the back.
Why do you need to play from the backcourt, the core factor is the team's oppression and counter-oppression, when the opposing team has 2-3 players to oppress the opposing Manchester United players and block their passing lines, the opponent's local space will inevitably appear empty, and the long pass of the backcourt directly looks for teammates in the empty area, which is bound to bring a threat to the attack.
In the tactical idea of attacking and defending, Van Gaal's idea is highly similar to Ferguson's, they do not like to start from the ground and advance layer by layer, they both prefer a faster and more direct offensive rhythm.
Attacking on the flanks is at the heart of the tactical line of thought that can be accomplished.
On the one hand, the team can avoid the layers of defense set by the opponent in the middle, on the other hand, if the attack on one side is blocked, through the use of lateral space on the court, it can constantly tear the opponent's defensive formation.
This derives Van Gaal's big-circle tactics at Manchester United, to put it bluntly, it is to switch back and forth between left and right, with high points in the middle to help the team shift the direction of attack. During Louis van Gaal's tenure, Fellaini was at the heart of the big circle tactics.
Unlike Lonnick,who asked full-backs to become wing-backs, Van Gaal did not ask full-backs to take on too many offensive tasks, he asked the midfielder to pull the side and the wingers to cooperate on the side to advance the attack.
The defender's job in attack is to find a long pass to find space. Forwards and wingers must have a speed advantage and can repeatedly punch the opponent's defensive line.
For the three centre-backs brought by Van Gaal, it was also the first in the Premier League that year, and the success of the three centre-backs in the Dutch national team made Van Gaal mistakenly think that there was still good feedback in Manchester United, but unfortunately his three-centre-back system seemed to be a bit unsatisfactory in Manchester United, and later "Kong Erzi" was the coach who really carried forward the three centre-backs in the Premier League.
Looking back at Van Gaal's tactics during the Manchester United era, he took the exact opposite path to Manchester City's Guardiola, Guardiola advocated pass control, and Van Gaal was obsessed with long passes, and manchester United's long pass success rate was high in the Premier League.
Among them, a large part of the reason is the long pass to find Fellaini, and fellaini's success rate of the top was quite high.
"Selfless rule of the army with an iron fist has made him lose the hearts of the people"
Louis van Gaal is an idealist, almost obsessed with tactics, he does not accept criticism of his tactics, when after West Ham United manager Allardyce commented that Manchester United is a long-pass team, Van Gaal directly threw out 4 pieces of paper at the press conference to explain his tactical philosophy.
Louis van Gaal's response was loud and clear, and there was a picture and a truth.
However, his approach has also attracted questions from the outside world, which mainly discuss his personality.
Scholes thought his actions were ridiculous. This may be the core factor in Louis van Gaal's failure to succeed at Manchester United.
It's not the tactics that are wrong, it's the people's minds that move.
Rooney has said that in terms of personnel management, Ferguson is definitely a big winner, and Van Gaal's problem is that he is too honest, and he talks the same way as the old players and the new players.
Rooney's assessment of Van Gaal was to the point. Louis Van Gaal is such a person who lives in his own world, he is not bound by tradition, and his personality is extreme, which makes him more or less affected when instilling tactical ideas in the team.
As soon as he took office, he played the Great Purge, and behind the iron fist, he caused a split in the team's locker room. More importantly, he was not at all aware of the seriousness of the problem.
If Manchester United had been some unknown "children" at that time, he might have succeeded, but don't forget that the team was full of champions in the squad that year, and the ruthless purge could make him end well at Manchester United.
"If there is an if"
There is no such false proposition in the world itself, but I personally sometimes think that if Louis Van Gaal could coach Manchester United for a long time and pour his tactical ideas into the marrow of Manchester United.
So, will Manchester United still have such a hard time in the Premier League?
This can actually be applied to Mourinho, but it can also be applied to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In the modern football world, there is less and less room and time for the manager to try and make mistakes, let's take another look, if Ferguson is coaching in this era, can there still be a legendary era between him and Manchester United?