What went wrong for Van Gaal at Manchester United?

louis-van-gaal-manchester-united
By Laurie Whitwell
Apr 20, 2020

It was the morning after Manchester United had won the 2016 FA Cup and, not for the first time, Louis van Gaal was preparing to make a speech at a team meal.

At least one person settling in for breakfast at the Corinthia Hotel near Embankment had little faith that the 10am start would see a full attendance of players and staff members, given the partying had gone on until dawn and rumours were swirling that Jose Mourinho had already agreed a deal to take over.

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“People had been out enjoying themselves the night before and I remember thinking, ‘No way will everyone show up,’” says a source. “But not a single person failed to show.”

Whether that was because Van Gaal’s doctrine for regimented eating times had become force of habit over the previous two years, or whether it was down to everybody thinking this manager — whatever his failings — deserved respect at the end of his reign, nobody can say for sure. But what did become obvious was the passion Van Gaal still held for his work and the bonds he had formed with a number of people at the club.

“He made the most emotional speech, there were a few teary eyes,” the source continues. “He said, ‘I’ve read the papers, I don’t know whether I’m going to be here, but I’ve got to carry on working as though I am.’”

Van Gaal then handed out schedules for all the players, detailing what dates they had to return, and that contributed to an impression among some of the recipients that the Dutchman actually thought he would stay on into the 2016-17 season.

“As could be the case with Louis, it was a weird atmosphere,” says someone else in the room. “It was the send-off for the summer and he had suggested we would see him again, even though it seemed clear Jose was coming in. Nobody really knew what to say.”

In truth, Van Gaal had understood his time at United was up since being told in the moments before his victory press conference at Wembley that the reports emerging of Mourinho’s imminent arrival probably had legitimacy. It is safe to conclude the leak did not come from United’s end.

The “horrendous” timing contributed to a very tetchy engagement with the media in which questions were asked about his status as manager, rather than his first piece of silverware in England, and he exited by waving the trophy in the air and sarcastically thanking reporters for their congratulations.

But the FA Cup was never going to save a manager who had overseen such an excruciating style of football, which turned off fans and players alike, and could not even be classed as successful.

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Van Gaal with Jesse Lingard, left, and Marcus Rashford, two players who shone under him (Photo: Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)

United finished fifth in the Premier League that season having scored just 49 goals – their lowest total since the 1989-90 campaign infamous for the “Ta ra Fergie” banner – and made by far the highest number of backwards passes in the division.

“Louis viewed being in possession of the ball as attacking,” says a source close to the club at the time. “But shuffling the ball around the edge of an opponent’s penalty area is not attacking to a United fan.”

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Furthermore, Van Gaal’s dictatorial approach had alienated players to the point where some senior members of the squad were openly rebellious to his methods and not afraid of saying so.

So while Van Gaal may have declared his “pride” at being the first United manager to claim a “title” after Sir Alex Ferguson, the writing was on the wall as he boarded the team train back to Manchester on Sunday, May 22. He spoke to Ed Woodward and wanted a swift resolution to matters, arriving at Carrington around 5.30am on the Monday for formalities to be concluded, before taking the private plane laid on by the club to his villa in Portugal.


The idiosyncrasies that would come to characterise Van Gaal’s reign became apparent early on. His second match in charge was at Sunderland on Sunday, August 24, 2014, and he gave Michael Keane his Premier League debut as a substitute when Chris Smalling suffered an injury before half-time.

Van Gaal was so impressed that in the debrief the next day he told the squad Keane was the best ball-playing centre-half at the club, and that Smalling and Phil Jones should study the way he played. The manner of praise was unusual to say the least, with Keane, 21 at the time, looking a little awkward in the spotlight.

On the Tuesday, 24 hours later, Van Gaal gave Keane more game-time in the League Cup tie at MK Dons. But surrounded by an unfamiliar team, the match went disastrously and United lost 4-0. Off the back of that performance Van Gaal was said to do a full 180 on Keane and made him available for transfer.

On September 1, deadline day, a personal visit by Sean Dyche to St George’s Park, where Keane was training with England Under-21s, saw him go on loan to Burnley in a move that would become permanent in January.

It was a week that summed up the chaotic thinking at the club and the unpredictability of Van Gaal, who would later tell Warren Joyce, United’s reserve-team manager, that he was “wrong” to let Keane go. Mourinho came close to signing Keane back for United for £25 million in 2017, before ultimately opting for Victor Lindelof.

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Van Gaal also told Joyce he erred in selling Danny Welbeck to Arsenal for £16 million the same day as Keane left, and while both cases can be debated, there was unease at the sight of two academy players exiting to be replaced by unconvincing, expensive imports in the shape of Marcos Rojo and Radamel Falcao.

It certainly felt incongruous given Van Gaal’s record for promoting youth at Ajax and Barcelona was one of the principle reasons for his appointment at United.

In other ways, Van Gaal did live up to that pedigree. He was regularly seen at youth-team matches, including at least once alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and assistant Ryan Giggs at Altrincham’s Moss Lane stadium, and he told players upon his arrival he wanted a squad of just 15 senior players with the rest made up from the academy.

“His usual way of operating was to have a smaller first-team squad and then be forced to bring young players in,” a source says.

When Anthony Martial suffered injury in the warm-up against Midtjylland on February 25, 2016, it was a strategy that gave Marcus Rashford room to flourish in astounding fashion. Rashford, 18 at the time, had been on the bench for a Premier League game at Watford three months before that debut. By the time he was lifting the FA Cup, Van Gaal had handed debuts to 14 academy players in total.

Joyce tells The Athletic: “Van Gaal was good. He would ask questions. He came to me once and said, ‘We have a problem tomorrow, we have no centre-half. West Ham play with a diamond. You tell me, Paddy McNair, Tom Thorpe or Marnick Vermijl – who should play and why.’ He played Paddy the next day.”

Josh Harrop, who scored on his only game for United under Mourinho, felt Van Gaal had the more personal touch. “One time I was sat on the bikes and the first team were stretching,” Harrop says. “Van Gaal came up to me and said, ‘One day if you work hard you’ll be with them.’ I went home and rang my dad, ‘He’s just said this to me. Flippin’ ‘eck.’”


Van Gaal did not cultivate warmth with all young players, however. Adnan Januzaj and Wilfred Zaha barely featured before being sent to Borussia Dortmund and Crystal Palace respectively. Whatever their own shortcomings, the suspicion lingers that their maverick styles were ill-suited to Van Gaal’s prosaic dogma.

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Van Gaal was also the manager who oversaw the departures of a clutch of experienced players who may have been in the twilight of their careers but were nevertheless steeped in United glory. Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, and Patrice Evra were all allowed to leave in July 2014, while Darren Fletcher departed the following winter window. Jonny Evans, Rafael and Nani went in summer 2015.

Some observers feel United lost “the heart of soul” of the team during this period, while another source close to the squad says: “They got rid of too many big personalities, too many well-respected players at one time. They are the guys who would tell the younger players how to act, how to win.”

There is a theory that Van Gaal, a former teacher, wanted players malleable to his “schoolmasterly approach” — as more than one source put it — but those he signed as replacements were repeatedly found to fall short of the standards required.

When Wayne Rooney told Memphis Depay that turning up to play a reserves game in a Rolls-Royce was not a good look given the demotion was punishment for a costly mistake against Stoke City, the £25 million signing from PSV Eindhoven responded by arriving for training the next day in exactly the same car.

Rooney’s instruction to stay off social media following an attack on the team bus at West Ham United also fell on deaf ears, with Jesse Lingard posting footage on Snapchat by the time the players got to the dressing room.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, meanwhile, irritated his team-mates for quite a while by undergoing treatment for an injury in Germany and only flying in and out of Manchester for matches.

Van Gaal spent more than £250 million on signings and Angel Di Maria, the costliest at £60 million, would come to symbolise the miscalculation of such a “galactico-type” approach. Van Gaal, however, has said he had players others on his list.

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“I didn’t always get the players that I want. That’s the problem,” Van Gaal told the Guardian last year, taking aim at Woodward. “Seemingly a few players were not reachable for Manchester United. I cannot understand, but it was like that.”

Di Maria was gettable after being placed on the market by Real Madrid and though an attempted raid on his Cheshire home by burglars inevitably contributed to his disquiet at the club, doubts had already emerged about his suitability for England.

“Not the bravest as a player,” says a source. “United looked at him when he was at Benfica and thought he would struggle in the Premier League. He was lightweight.” Another who worked with Di Maria says: “He was very quiet, not like the other Argentines United had signed, such as Rojo, Gabriel Heinze, or Carlos Tevez.”

In September 2014 Di Maria scored a wonderful goal at Leicester City as United stormed to a 3-1 lead. But an adventurous side also featuring Falcao, Rooney, and Robin van Persie succumbed to a 5-3 defeat (in which Jamie Vardy also announced his abilities to the nation), and from there Van Gaal fortified his selections, to the detriment of Di Maria and hastening a transfer to Paris Saint-Germain that saw United make a £16 million loss.

“Di Maria was pissed off because of the positions he was played in and the rules (restrictions) placed upon his game,” says a source. “He would tell friends, ‘I don’t want to be at United.’”

He was not the only player in dispute at the tactics.


Boxing Day 2015 was perhaps the nadir of Van Gaal’s reign. United lost 2-0 at Stoke in a manner that made his job the subject of intense scrutiny. Rooney went in search of a meeting with his manager.

Dropped for the game, United’s captain wanted to get something off his chest. He told Van Gaal that his form had suffered because of the “methodical” instructions for playing, which included retaining possession to wear opponents down and taking a touch before shooting. The orders were shackling intuitive actions and making players second-guess every move.

“The system was very structured,” says a source. “It was mechanical, rigid, not an environment for flair-based players.”

Rooney and Van Gaal did not always see eye to eye (Photo: Catherine Ivill/AMA/Getty Images)

Van Gaal, an approachable manager, listened as Rooney said that once back in the team, he would play more to his natural game. Rooney was restored and he came into his best form of the campaign, scoring seven goals in seven games.

In the book “From Guernica to Guardiola: How the Spanish Conquered English Football”, Ander Herrera explains the difference between the high-octane style of Marcelo Bielsa and Van Gaal’s philosophy.

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Herrera says: “Bielsa believes you have to move to find the ball. Van Gaal believes the ball has to find you. So with Van Gaal, you are far more rigid and fixed to your positions. Bielsa wants you to be fluid, to show and ask for the ball, to be on the move, taking a risk in your play. He doesn’t want to wait for the ball; he wants you to be the protagonist. It was a completely different mentality for me. I have spoken with Van Gaal about this several times.”

Fellow Spaniard David De Gea was determined to leave the club if Van Gaal stayed.

Delving deeper into the statistics from Van Gaal’s time illustrates the constraints his players were under. United scored 62 goals in the 2014-15 Premier League season and 49 in 2015-16, but on each occasion the expected goals were lower, measured at 52.1 and 43.7 respectively, indicating Van Gaal’s sides were by no means unlucky to be scoring so infrequently.

Indeed, in 2015-16, United had 144 shots on target – the ninth-lowest in the division. The only two teams with more passes than United that season dwarfed their shot count — Manchester City (210 shots on target) and Arsenal (211).

In both of Van Gaal’s seasons, United topped the charts for possession (61.4 per cent and 58.5 per cent), but also backward passes. This was not the kaleidoscopic domination of the ball that characterised his Ajax or Barcelona sides. It was ponderous and lacking penetration.

In 2014-15, United played 3,457 backward passes, 197 more than Chelsea, the next highest. In 2015-16, that figure was 3,222 — 276 more than Arsenal, the closest team.

It meant that in Van Gaal’s second season, United averaged 68.5 passes per shot; in Ferguson’s final campaign, that number was 45.4. At one stage, United failed to score before half-time at Old Trafford for 11 consecutive matches and cries of “attack, attack, attack” were a constant soundtrack.

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It is understood Giggs, who was in charge of analysing opposition and tailoring sessions to suit, advocated an approach closer to United’s traditions but ultimately had to defer to the man in the No 1 role, whom he has called a “brilliant teacher”.

A source close to the club says: “We would have 75 per cent possession in some halves and not score. Van Gaal was talking a different language to United.”


Sometimes, the talking translated to boredom. Rather than allow his players a day off after a game, Van Gaal would hold video sessions overseen by performance analyst Max Reckers. The intention was to go through mistakes in the previous game in forensic detail to ensure they were ironed out in future.

But the effect was claustrophobic. Players felt highly self-conscious and their confidence drained. “There was meeting after meeting, so much dialogue,” says a source.

Eventually Rooney and Michael Carrick went to see Van Gaal to offer feedback themselves. He heeded the advice, in part, and instead started sending the critiques as emails with clips attached. He also had a “tracker” installed so he could check his notes were being read for the requisite length of time. But players ended up opening them on their phones and setting to one side as they went about doing other things.

“Footballers are a strange breed and it doesn’t take much for you to lose them,” explains one retired player with United connections. “It only takes one thing from a manager to annoy them, then it can snowball and every decision they make starts to irritate.”

Some may say it is a poor group who do not wish to learn, and while it is up to a manager to find the right means of communication, the sense that modern players can be too coddled gains credence when hearing of Mourinho’s arrival at Old Trafford. He asked his new players for three things they didn’t like about being at United.

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“One of the responses was, ‘We don’t like wearing the blazers to games,’” says a source. “To my mind the club should have said, ‘Tough luck, you’re wearing them.’ But instead, because Mourinho was new and he made a big deal of it, they were allowed to wear tracksuits.

“Louis had been very much, ‘It is Manchester United, we turn out and look the part. This is important for the respect we have for the club.’”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made suits a pillar of his approach when appointed, of course.

Van Gaal’s directives went further, though. Players and staff would all eat together after training, going up for food table by table, and Van Gaal always finished with a speech to round up his thoughts and set the agenda for the next day. During Van Gaal’s first pre-season tour, one employee who asked to leave the evening meal to get back to work was publicly admonished. Van Gaal saw eating together as a sign of community, even if some felt the newly-installed Perspex partition to separate the first team from everyone else at Carrington made it feel as if you were dining in a “glass cage”.

Another quirk was Van Gaal’s desire to train a couple of days before a night match at the time of kick-off. “Which obviously was incredibly unpopular with the staff, and the players weren’t too chuffed either,” says a source.

United put lights in at Carrington to accommodate, and also planted trees in an effort to stop the wind at the training ground. “Carrington is one of the most exposed sites in Manchester, you can’t stop the wind,” says someone close to the club.

Van Gaal also pressed for a high-tech system that he had used at previous clubs to monitor player movement and distance covered. It was installed at great expense, only for Mourinho to have a different opinion and get it taken out.


There is at least a consistent opinion from a number of people who have worked with Van Gaal. “I don’t think I’ve met a nicer person in my life,” says one.

Another explains how Van Gaal and his wife Trudi have sent Christmas cards each year since leaving. “They were very sociable and would say hello if they saw you out in Manchester. He’s a very decent man.”

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Another former colleague says: “He had charisma, you knew when he was in a room. At the Christmas party he would turn up, stay all night, and expect his coaches and squad to do the same. He would thank the staff for their work during the year.”

Right manager, wrong time is one school of thought. For all the rules in his leather-bound clipboard, he was open to others’ suggestions. “He used to be quite strict about not having mobile phones in the canteen,” explains a source. “He didn’t want players to be constantly on their phones. He wanted them talking. But by the end he realised we were living in a different age, so he allowed them.”

Van Gaal could offer rebukes for “stupid” questions, but he could also laugh at himself, such as the time he called the defender alongside him at a press conference “Mike” Smalling, rather than Chris. It is believed he mixed up Smalling with Michael Carrick, who had also been in line to attend.

From mince pies to sadomasochism to “merry” appearances at award ceremonies, Van Gaal as a man could certainly entertain. It is just a pity his United team, even with Phil Jones on corners, could not do the same.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)


This is part of a series of articles inspired by questions from our readers. Thank you to Catalin M for the inspiration for this piece after asking us to explore what went wrong for Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and why.

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Laurie Whitwell

Laurie Whitwell worked for the Daily Mail from 2010, covering midlands football for the last five years, including Leicester’s remarkable Premier League triumph. Whitwell was nominated for sports scoop of the year at the 2019 SJAs for breaking Wayne Rooney’s move to DC United. He will be reporting on Manchester United for The Athletic. Follow Laurie on Twitter @lauriewhitwell