Louis van Gaal

[King Binny]

Dated April 2009:

How AZ Alkmaar proved the pundits were way off target

Louis van Gaal's side shocked every expert by becoming the first side from outside the 'Big Three' to win the title for 28 years

At the start of the season 12 of Holland's foremost football pundits were asked to predict the final standings of the season for Voetbal International's season guide. Ten picked Ajax to become champions and two backed PSV to win a fifth straight title. None chose AZ Alkmaar. In fact, none selected AZ to come second either. Varying from third to 13th, the sum of the pundits' votes predicted that AZ would come fifth or sixth.

However ludicrous they appear now, those picks were hard to fault. In the previous season AZ had come 11th and had even faced relegation, after blowing the title on the final day of the season prior to that. Near the end of 2007-08 the manager, Louis van Gaal, had decided to leave the club by the end of year, only to be swayed by a desperate squad. With hardly a new player of note and the same manager at the helm, there was not much reason to suspect things would be better this year.

Sure enough, AZ were hopeless in their first two Eredivisie games of the season. But after losing away to a spirited NAC, 2-1, and ADO, 3-0, something changed. In spite of claiming that the ADO game had been "AZ's best in six months", Van Gaal abandoned his stubbornness at long last and placed pragmatism before idealism, turning his side into a deadly counter-attacking team rather than a classical Dutch pressing-and-possession side.

The impact was immediate. At home to PSV, AZ managed to hold shape against the in-form defending champions long enough for Maarten Martens to score the only goal for the Alkmaarders with a nifty chip in the 82nd minute. Growing more comfortable with their system as the season progressed, their combination-football appeared ever more fluid and natural. Inevitably AZ passed their way to the most convincing championship in recent memory.

AZ had not even lost a league game since making the change until Saturday, when one last win would have assured the title. Before their adoring home crowd against a poor Vitesse side they had every chance of winning. But they blew it, losing 2-1.

"We were much better than Vitesse but just didn't play well," said van Gaal, flashing his inimitable logic. "The way their goals fell, it was unbelieveable. I told the lads in the dressing room that Vitesse's were lucky goals. You can't imagine this ahead of time, that you lose through two deflected shots." Indeed, Ricky van Wolfswinkel's goal had come courtesy of a lucky bounce off AZ defender Gill Swerts while Alexander Büttner saw his shot bounce off Swerts again and drop into the net after Mounir El Hamdaoui had given AZ the lead.

But the only remaining team with a mathematical chance of keeping AZ from glory, Ajax, took a 6-2 tonking at the hands of PSV on Sunday, making AZ champions by default. Deciding the title in the most anticlimactic of ways was fitting for a season defying logic and reason.

That was no comfort to Ajax. "This shouldn't be possible in a situation where a coaching staff and a squad have been training, talking, celebrating and mourning together for nearly 10 months," said Maarten Wijffels of Algemeen Dagblad.

But it was deserved. Despite seeing their 28-match unbeaten run come to an end, AZ's dominance was total. There were good wins, mediocre wins and bad wins. But they were wins, nonetheless, unlike last season. Championships, after all, are won in the bad games, not in the good ones.

The first champion not named Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord since 1981, when AZ won their only other championship, certainly benefited from an off-year by all the others. But to write this title off as a statistical aberration would do it wrong, as it was won fair and square, and the poor displays of their rivals was just as much a product of AZ's dominance as it was of their own dysfunctionality.

Many credit the chairman and owner, Dirk Scheringa, a wealthy banker who started out as a policeman, filling out friends' tax forms and supplying the occasional loan, who turned a failing club around. "Praise often concentrated on Van Gaal, the man allowed to complete Scheringa's life's work," wrote the columnist Chris van Nijnatten. "But this title has to be credited to Scheringa's account. In 15 years he built, with his own means, a big regional club."

Van Gaal, of course, credits himself. "It's incredible what we've achieved. The other clubs, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, have a much higher budget. We've had to make due with lesser players and lesser means," said Van Gaal, whose squad, however, is the best in the country and whose infrastructure and transfer budget are among the best.

"This is great for the players. For me, personally, this championship will be my greatest little masterpiece," he had said earlier, though there should have been a greater one – he failed to get the most talented Holland side of all time to the World Cup in 2002.

When he wanted to leave, the players "wanted to show that they are worthy of Louis van Gaal," added the aforementioned, whose neurosis is such that he even instructs the guy mowing the field how many millimetres the grass should measure.

But Van Gaal's love for tooting his own horn through a megaphone does not take away from AZ's performance. The 1981 AZ champions had a budget that was on a par with the 'Big Three', whereas the current squad lag a little behind. And, unlike 28 years ago, AZ have learned to put the fans first, taking to the streets right after Ajax's hammering, rather than celebrating privately, the way they did then. Van Gaal did lament his inability to address the crowd. "If I'd had a microphone it would have been more fun," he said. "The people do really want that – for me to talk to them."

Aside from now being AZ's longest-serving manager ever, Van Gaal also won his 12th big prize in charge of a Dutch side, equalling Guus Hiddink's record. Van Gaal now counts four domestic titles, a Champions League, a Uefa Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and some other scrap metal accumulated at Ajax and Barcelona, including a Liga title or two.

But life after Van Gaal, who plans one more season at AZ, looks just as promising. Their support in elementary schools in the Noord-Holland province, a bastion of Ajaxness, is now reputedly on a par with the giants from Amsterdam.

"AZ are the champions of hope," said Willem Vissers of De Volkskrant. "The province has struck again and victory has befallen Alkmaar."

"Once a year PSV become champions of the Netherlands," concluded Nik Kok of Algemeen Dagblad. "But not this year."

After 28 years the Eredivisie hegemony of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord has been broken. AZ are the undisputed champions of the Netherlands. The kings are dead. Long live the king.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Louis

Louis

Louis

Louis

 

[King Binny]

Dated Feb 2009:

Van Gaal's organic approach produces Total Football 2.0 with AZ

No longer can it be said that AZ lead the Eredivisie by default because PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord are having an off-year

Louis van Gaal has lost his religion. And in so doing, he has contrived a new one. By relinquishing his former belief system and marrying it to a more modern approach, Van Gaal has, with AZ, reinvented Total Football. Call it Total Football 2.0, if you will.

Total Football, as it was developed during the late 60s and early 70s, was in need of an update in order to accommodate the pace and skill of modern football, as it had become largely impractical. The system had been efficient in its time because it provided a certain quickness and appreciation for possession that stodgy oppositions lacked. But teams are no longer slow and static and acknowledge the perils of leaving the other team on the ball.

The maniacal pressing and high offside trap that Total Football prescribes – in order to keep the field small when out of possession and as wide as possible when in possession to retain the ball – is unsustainable today. The number of games and the pace at which they're played have become prohibitive in that regard. As it turns out, according to Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics, even the great Ajax of the 70s couldn't really pull it off either. Their team doctor had them on a steady diet of amphetamines, painkillers and muscle-relaxants. Van Gaal's Ajax of the mid-90s managed it only by virtue of having mostly players aged 18-22.

Furthermore, many of the modern players are specialists, unprepared to play every position on their vertical axis, the way the rapid swapping of positions of Total Football demands. It takes a decade or so for teams to learn how to instinctively switch spots. Today, clubs cycle through players so quickly that they haven't the time to master the system, whereas the Ajax teams of the 70s and 90s had been staffed largely from within, growing up together and on the system in the academy. And besides, players know they're more valuable if they play one position well, rather than being passable at two or three.

In Total Football, the individual becomes a cog in the machinery of the greater good. Self-sacrifice is irreconcilable with the modern footballer. Ironically, the blame for that lies with Johan Cruyff, the on-field brain behind Total Football's glory days during the 70s with Ajax and Holland, who became the first football star to cross over into pop culture as an icon of 60s rebellion but also of self-aggrandisement.

At face value, AZ's organically grown new method appears to be the mortal enemy of the Dutch football school because of its reluctant style. But on closer inspection, one finds more similarities than differences.

Built on the foundation of Total Football, AZ's game is to sit back and wait for their opponents to overstretch themselves and then break out. Their skilled, lightning-quick strikers are sufficiently superior to their guards to capitalise on only a handful of chances.

Van Gaal's system allows for more flair, giving the individual more room for improvisation, and is less stringent about formations – he's had his team play in at least four different shapes this year. AZ still apply asphyxiating pressure on their opponents, but they do so largely in their own half, rather than over the whole field. And when they gain possession they try to cross the field in three passes or fewer, usually ending in a through-ball for the strikers to run on to. They attack, in other words, in short and quick bursts and then dedicate themselves to letting the opposition do the work.

On Saturday, the new system withstood its greatest test yet at a reborn PSV – for one half anyway. While hounding PSV when they had the ball, AZ easily gained possession in the first half, resulting in two goals: Gill Swerts was able to head in a Stijn Schaars corner before a classic AZ attack provoked a penalty. After a save by the sure-handed Sergio Romero, Swerts played the ball on to Moussa Dembélé who, after a brief dribble, played a perfect through-ball to Demy de Zeeuw who was tripped up in the box. De Zeeuw missed his penalty but Maarten Martens converted the rebound.

Sitting back backfired in the second half, though, as a sloppier AZ saw a spirited PSV squeeze two goals past them through Danny Koevermans, who was ousted from AZ by Van Gaal two years ago. The 2–2 draw was fair, but ideologically, AZ were plainly superior. And the argument can no longer be made that AZ lead the Eredivisie by default because PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord are having an off-year. For AZ have now gone undefeated for five months and this weekend was their first failure to win in almost three months.

"I'm very disappointed," said Van Gaal afterwards, after warning that he rated PSV more than his own squad before the game. "I was once up 3–0 with Barcelona against Valencia and we lost 4–3 at home. That's possible in football. It was a real match with lots of battle but lots of mistakes too."

"If you go ahead 2–0 at PSV's stadium, you can't give it away," AZ's captain, Stijn Schaars, said. "I really don't even think they got any chances." "When you're behind 2–0 against the soon-to-be champions, you can be satisfied with a point," PSV's Koevermans added.

On Sunday, in an unusually tame classic – which was anything but that – Ajax weren't good but Feyenoord were even worse. A few hungry Ajax players sufficed for a 2–0 victory, even though Ajax hit the post and crossbar four times. While Real Madrid checks its receipt for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for wording on its returns policy, Ajax sorely lack a finisher like, say, Huntelaar.

"The total decay of Feyenoord, the almost unrecognisable powerhouse of yore … evoked a deep sense of pity," Charles Bromet wrote in De Volkskrant. "Because what on earth were they doing, the confused footballers of caretaker manager [Leon] Vlemmings? There wasn't a single player capable of staying calm when in possession."

In another poor game, Steve McClaren's FC Twente were bailed out by an early red card for last-placed FC Volendam, who had been superior and had brashly gone ahead via a penalty in the sixth minute. Twente eventually laboured to a 2–1 win through a goal by Marko Arnautovic and a penalty by Blaise N'Kufo.

 

[refugee]

I hate Van Gaal. He's an utter dick

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Louis

Louis

Louis

Louis

 

[King Binny]

But the performance of the weekend once again belonged to AZ. After winning at Willem II 5-2 last week, the AZians put away hapless Sparta 6-0. After 34 seconds Mounir El Hamdaoui scored the first of two splendid goals; Moussa Dembélé also scored twice.

The efficient ball movement, clean running routes and crisp through-balls are reminiscent of AZ manager Louis van Gaal's glory days at Ajax during the mid-90s. "We are playing in an attractive manner that's fun for the public but you have to stay down to earth," van Gaal commented.

Hamdaoui-Dembélé are undoubtedly the best strike pairing in the nation with nine goals in 10 matches and talent to boot. The ever-upbeat Mounir and the soft-spoken Moussa seem destined for bigger and better things. All AZ can do is hold on tight and enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Dated Apr 2009:

AZ Alkmaar have clinched the Dutch league championship for only the second time in their history.

Louis van Gaal's side were crowned champions for the first time since 1981 after PSV Eindhoven beat Ajax - the only team who could catch them.

Twente Enschede, managed by former England boss Steve McLaren, are second, leading Ajax by one point.

It is the sixth league title for Van Gaal, 57, after he steered Ajax to three successes and Barcelona to two.

AZ operate on a budget of just £25m - much less than most Premier League clubs receive from just their television rights income - and their title success will allow Van Gaal to make a return to the Champions League next season.

In 1995 Van Gaal won the Champions League with Ajax.

AZ had a poor season last year, finishing 11th, and the coach offered to resign.

The players, however, took responsibility for their under-par performances and persuaded him to stay, but after two matches they had failed to register a point.

Things swiftly changed and Van Gaal's master stroke was uncovering a key player in prolific Moroccan striker Mounir El Hamdaoui, who scored his 22nd league goal on Saturday in AZ's 2-1 home defeat by Vitesse Arnhem.

In a recent interview with Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, Van Gaal said he intended to leave AZ, which is based in a northern Dutch city of less than 100,000 people, after next season.

"I still have the ambition to be the manager of a major country, to compete in a Cup tournament," said Van Gaal

"I am not ready to be the Alex Ferguson of AZ."

 

[King Binny]

Dutch football know-how is at the centre of today’s best performing teams. The tiki-taka tactics Barcelona brings to the pitch have been introduced and immersed by Johan Cruyff from youngster to trainer during the 1970s and, more recently, consolidated by Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard. Around the world there are Dutch coaches under exotic conditions responsible for lifting the level of success. The most eccentric one has to be Louis van Gaal himself. Love him or hate him, he will make sure you will know and hear about him, and he may just be featuring soon at a football theatre near you.

One of the reasons for that is that the man is a self-made success. After a hardly noteworthy players’ career as a defender in mediocre teams like Sparta, Royal Antwerp and Telstar Van Gaal started off on a coaching path as an assistant at AZ Alkmaar in the late 1980s. Shortly thereafter, Beenhakker made him his assistant at Ajax Amsterdam, and, upon his exit, Louis van Gaal became the club’s manager in 1991. Immediately securing success with the triumph in the EUFA Cup, his tenure became synonymous for Ajax’ reemergence at the top of European football. During the season ‘94-‘95 Ajax became nearly invincible, capturing the Champions League, and the national title after an unbeaten run. Next season, Ajax would again reach the final of the Champions League, but lost the penalty shoot out to Juventus. The Intercontinental Cup was won after penalty’s that season, crowning them best team in the world. Aside of international success, during van Gaal‘s six-year period at Ajax they collected three national league titles, a national cup and three super cups. Most extraordinary was the average age of 23 of the team and the offensive tactics they employed.

Success has many fathers, failure has none – as the Dutch saying goes. A decline set in motion when most players were awarded the status of free agent, upon which they left to try their luck at Europe’s most prestigious clubs. After asking rhetorically whether he was so smart or everyone else so stupid, Louis the Champion left for the promised land of Barcelona. Never having been much appreciative of the press, here he found his every step scrutinized. This is less remarkable considering the fact that in his footsteps a total of eight Dutch players were brought into the team, practically reassembling his equip from the successful Ajax days. However, this turned out to have been a mixed blessing for all parties involved. Van Gaal proved unable to repeat its previous European successes at Camp Nou, and argued with the team’s top player Rivaldo. After the socios showed their rising discontent by the characteristic waving of white handkerchiefs, Van Gaal left, only to fail dramatically in a campaign to qualify for the 2002 World Cup with the Dutch national team. He revealed where his mind was at with the lines “Amigos de la prensa. Yo me voy. Felicidades.” (Friends of the press. I am leaving. Congratulations.).

Not without reason his nicknames include the Czar of Alkmaar and The Iron Tulip. That’s why the move to Bayern Munich was a risky one, a club with established traditions guarded over by its living legends. Contact with some of the stars in the team was again problematic at times, even though he tried to show himself from his human side. After reaching the final of the Champions League with Die Recordmeister and winning the DFB Pokal and the Bundesliga at once, the second season in Munich could hardly go any better. At the start of the current season all the internationals were still recovering from the World Cup and halfway it was clear that prolonging the title was out of the question. Then, in the course of one week all hope faded. Talk of prizes and prestige turned out ill-founded after loosing consecutively against Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 and Hannover 96 during the first week of March. Van Gaal’s position was waning and the club turned into damage control mode. The outcome is that Van Gaal’s contract will be cut short until the end of the season, with the consent of both parties.

Is it bad luck? A matter of unforeseen circumstance that makes craftsmanship deficient? In that line of reasoning is no room for sacrificing the coach. Maybe the case against Van Gaal is that he mismanaged the team selection, causing the level of quality to fall due to transfers. The defense in particular looks shaky, and now talk is going around that Lucío, currently playing for Inter and co-responsible for Bayern’s defeat in the Champions League, is desired to return in the heart of German defense and restore stability. Besides reluctance to spend money on new (or familiar) players, the team’s captain Mark van Bommel was allowed to leave for AC Milan. There is no denying that the experienced central midfielder often carried the team through difficult moments. Still, it is not Van Gaal by himself who handles the money and staffing of the team, so this reason should be dismissed for the most part. Would it be the temper of the man? Louis van Gaal has an erratic track record at best, in terms of clashing with his players, and, often the ones who have been successful and know how to verbalize their dissenting views.

TV pundits like to ridicule his openness and angry fits. People in the professional football circuit credit him for shaping a band of young talents into a skilled and strictly organized team. Where the man’s reputation becomes disputed is when top players enter the picture who don’t sheepishly follow his orders. In a totalitarian system there can only be one leader and room for flexibility is nonexistent. If something doesn’t bent then something will break. Bayern Munich could have foreseen such an equation to arise. Meanwhile, Van Gaal knows how success tastes, and probably hasn’t had enough of it yet. The man, who approaches team spirit by protecting his players as a maniac, would do well to come full circle and end his career in Amsterdam where he started his personal elevation. Perhaps a role outside of the limelight perfecting the clubs’ youth would make his the greatest contribution to Dutch football yet. Whether he settles for a position on the second plane is however seriously questionable. The traits that make him unbearable are what makes him successful.

 

[jan]

Always been a fan

 

[King Binny]

Dated Mar 2010:

Van Gaal's technological revolution

Last season I interviewed Louis van Gaal a few weeks before he celebrated the Dutch title with AZ Alkmaar and it became very interesting when we started talking about the prospect of technical aids in football. In the previous game, AZ had a goal disallowed for offside and we both agreed that the decision was debatable. The scorer of the AZ goal was level with the stomach of a defender, who was lying prostrate with his head near the goal-line and his feet in the direction of the penalty spot. We both wondered which body part exactly constitutes offside and which makes it level.

"I am 37 years in the business and I still don't know the answer. Nobody knows," Van Gaal proclaimed - to which I agreed. This observation appears to have become part of Van Gaal's routine as a recent interview with him in the German sports magazine Kicker described a comparable complaint for the current Bayern Munich coach. Unfortunately for him, the International FIFA Board decided on this particular issue some time ago, says an addition to Law number 11. Every body part of a defender can prevent an offside position except his arm. So the AZ-goal was wrongly disallowed as the linesman apparently did not know the rule. It would have required a rule book instead of technical aids to set it right.

This issue was only a small, insignificant part of the big story in Kicker. The headline "Van Gaal's Revolution" outlined the coach's proposals for a complete overhaul of governance on the football pitch. Firstly, the linesmen are wrongly positioned as they are mostly unable to witness the kick of the ball and the receiving player at the same time - they should move to the corner flag where they can watch the move diagonally. Van Gaal then switched to an even better, but more expensive, solution. He suggested two referees on the pitch, as in field hockey, and a third one behind a computer, which would mark the end of assistants on the touchline. The computer would be fed by a camera network, which follows the track of each player.

This innovation is not something from the realms of fantasy as Bayern Munich have such a system, engineered by Max Reckers, who was taken by Van Gaal from AZ. UEFA use it as well, to track the running distance of players in the Champions League. And it is similar to the ProZone system used in England.

Reckers has also demonstrated a camera system which alerts the referee when a ball - with a chip inside - passes the goal-line. It should also work for the touchline and the penalty box. In the article, Louis van Gaal relished the idea of any technical solution. The computer should decide.

And he was not finished there. The throw-in should become a kick-in, while the playing time should become an effective ball-in-play 70 minutes, as in many other sports like basketball, ice and field hockey. Then came his views on penalty shoot-outs, which while suggested before would still be radical. Van Gaal suggested to take a man off every five minutes during extra-time. In the last five minutes it will then be six against six. If the teams are still level, they should play on until a Golden Goal is scored.

His last proposed innovation is more realistic. Although he agrees nothing beats the smell of freshly sprayed grass pitches in the early morning sun, he embraces artificial turf: "Then every ground in the world would be the same, which I prefer over the extreme differences in quality of grass pitches." There Van Gaal has a point. The current match schedule leaves little time for a pitch to recover, which can be detrimental to the quality of football on show. The development of artificial turf has reached its 'third generation' - 3G -, which constitutes a mix of synthetics and grass. Most professional teams have at least one training ground equipped with it.

Van Gaal has compiled his suggestions and tips under the name of 'Fairplay', although it is nothing official. The interview was even published a few days after the International Football Association Board had its annual meeting in Zurich, so it had no bearing on the outcome of the board's verdict. Defying the outcry for technology from many, the board members decided to keep technology out and even stop the experiments.

Unfortunately this decision came without any explanation. However, the goal-line technology alone would cost each club about half a million euros to install and maintain. Should a small club, entering the Europa League for maybe one or two qualifying games once every five years, be compelled to buy a system which might never be used? Champions of goal-line technology refer to HawkEye in tennis and cricket, but that is used many times per match. The goal-line discussion pops up once or twice a year at a club at best, which may have been what persuaded the Board to vote against it.

Van Gaal's offside technology would be even more expensive and leaves some questions unanswered. Can a computer decide if a player in an offside position is interfering with play? The Bayern coach has an easy solution: "Away with the passive offside rule!". Secondly, what should be done when the technology breaks down. Abandon the game?

As a columnist, I'd rather propose to have more respect for referees. Should there be evidence that the men in black deliberately make mistakes or take sides, then Louis van Gaal would have a point. As this is not really the case, he should just accept decisions. With his experience he knows good and bad moments will even out over a season.

He should maybe instead address his colleagues and the players. When Thierry Henry handles the ball to keep it in against Ireland, there is only one to blame for cheating: Thierry Henry. Others take a dive in an attempt to earn a penalty and some fake injuries to stop a game. At least these annoyances are harmless. Much worse are the elbows and ruthless tackles. A pitch may be the only workplace where one can harm his colleague and get away with it. "I went for the ball" or "Of course, I did not deliberately break his leg" have become acceptable excuses for reckless tackles.

Instead of whining about the introduction of technical aid-systems, the football world should clean up the game with a modern disciplinary system. Violent acts on the pitch, causing physical harm to another player, should be punished much more severely.

The suggestion that a player should be suspended until the victim has recovered is a bit arbitrary, but at least three or four months off the pitch might, hopefully, make a player think twice before flying in at knee-height. At least this proposal would not take a big investment to introduce.

 

[Cerberus]

Ok I'm sold. Get this cock wielding lunatic to Anfield immediately.

 

[King Binny]

Interview in 2008:

Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful coaches of his generation. The Dutchman won two European club competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, at the head of the strongest Ajax squad since the glory days of the 1970s.

During his tenure in Amsterdam, Van Gaal presided over the development of Patrick Kluivert, the De Boer brothers, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Nwankwo Kanu, Edwin van der Sar, Marc Overmars and Jari Litmanen. He then headed abroad and won La Liga in 1998 and 1999 with Barcelona, adding to a CV which has made him one of the most respected coaches currently working in Europe.

After a period back at Ajax as head of football, Van Gaal made the move to Alkmaar in 2005, returning to the club at which he had finished his playing career and moved into coaching as assistant manager. Within the space of two short seasons, he has helped to bring AZ back to the forefront of Dutch football, but that has not satisfied the ambitious 56-year-old, who agreed to meet FIFA.com in his office in the DSB Stadion for a friendly and revealing exclusive interview.

Do you still have regrets about your time as Oranje coach?
I always look to the present and the future, not the past. I never had the chance to take part in a major tournament with the Netherlands and that's a real shame, but I resigned because some of the players refused to accept my methods. I am who I am and I have my own ways. I'm not going to change and I have no desire to.

People talk about the 'Van Gaal system'. How would you describe this?
It's a footballing philosophy more than a system. A system depends on the players you have. I played 4-3-3 with Ajax, 2-3-2-3 with Barcelona and I can play 4-4-2 with AZ. I'm flexible. The philosophy stays the same though.

How would you describe this philosophy then, and can you implement it with any team?
I don't think that you can adapt it to every possible situation. You need the right mindset, and it depends on how the players see the coach and vice versa. The coach is the focal point of the team but you need to have an open mind, and so do all the players. Everyone needs to work together to achieve a common goal. Preparing your tactical formation is essential. Each player needs to know where he has to be, and that is why there needs to be mutual understanding because you need absolute discipline. This is a sport played by 22 men, and there are 11 opponents out there playing as a team. Each individual needs to know who he has to beat and be there to support his team-mates.

What kind of situation was AZ in when you came back and where are they now?
When I got here, they were still playing in an 8,000 capacity stadium which hardly ever sold out. Now we have a new ground with room for more than 20,000 fans, and last season we sold out almost every match. That's already an important step. The aim is for AZ to become a big club domestically and recognised throughout Europe on the same level as the big three over here: Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. The president wants to work in stages so that every aspect is covered, not just the results on the pitch. Having said that, the fact that we are ahead of the big three in the UEFA rankings thanks to what we achieved last season is an essential element in the progress we are making.

When you lost the title in the final match of last season, did that not mean that you also lost some impetus? Was it not even tougher to start all over again?
It's always a real disappointment to lose out on a championship in the final match. The club needs a title to confirm the progress it has made. It's the next step that we have to take if we want recognition in the Netherlands. We only have a budget of 16 millions euros, compared with 65 million for Ajax and 60 million for PSV, but we have been in the top three the last two seasons and we got to the final of the cup, which we only lost on penalties. The president is a wealthy man but he doesn't want to bump up the budget for the sake of just spending more. Money isn't the be all and end all. Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord all pay two to three times the wages that we do, but the gap is closing.

It must be frustrating though to have players leave the club to join one of the big three.
When you develop players and bring them on, you get real satisfaction out of it so no, I don't feel frustrated. We have other things acting in our favour, such as the quality of the football that we play. We like to attack and that is a selling point for us. When I won the league for the first time with Ajax, we did it on a low budget and we can do the same here. If I didn't believe that then I would never have come here.

Do you have any regrets from your two spells at Barcelona? Would you do it all again if you had the chance?
You always have to look at the context. I don't regret any of my decisions since my philosophy today is no different from what it was then. I don't want to act out a role. As I've already mentioned, I want to be myself, and I'm not going to change my personality. I'm happy as a coach, even if it's not easy at times. And I still won two titles, a Copa del Rey and a Supercup, and there aren't many coaches who can say that. When Nunez was in charge, the club spent a lot less on transfers. We never broke the bank to get a player.

What is your opinion on Frank Rijkaard, who after scaling the heights of European football with Barcelona is now coming in for criticism?
History seems to be repeating itself as far as he is concerned. He is a nice man, open-minded, but all Barca coaches go through some tough times. You just have to ride them out.

Winning titles as quickly as you did at Ajax you set the bar very high very early. Is that not a double-edged sword?
When you are successful very quickly, obviously expectations get that much greater. You can't possibly meet them and then the criticism starts. Sometimes it's unfair, but that's just the way it is, so I accept it. Since I arrived at AZ, we've finished second and third in the championship, so expectations have been raised, particularly since the club has spent some money as well. And results aren't going our way yet this season.

What was behind your slow start to the season?
We sold two players, Arveladze and Koevermans, who managed 55 goals between them last year. We didn't replace them so we're missing a goal machine. We're playing well but we can't find the back of the net.

What is your fondest memory as a coach?
The first league title I won with Ajax in 1994. My wife passed away that year. She died in the January and we won the championship in May. It was a very emotional period.

You've coached an incredible number of top players throughout your career. Which one has made the greatest impression on you?
I'm not going to single out a name. Players count for nothing, the team is everything. I set more store by a player's character than by his on-field qualities, and particularly whether he is willing to give everything to the cause. There are some incredibly talented players who haven't got the character or the personality to suit my methods. Litmanen, for example, was a different player at Barca than he was at Ajax. You have to adapt to a new culture when you move to a different club, and not every player is able to do that.

What for you was the defining moment of 2007? And what would be your New Year's wish for 2008?
What I remember most in 2007 is when we lost the title to Excelsior Rotterdam on the final day of the season. For 2008, I'm hoping we'll get a place in the Champions League.

 

[Shadey]

I hate Van Gaal. He's an utter dick

You can always call him Dick Van Gaal if he arrives

 

[HC]

May 2010: LVG goes mental

 

[King Binny]

Dated Apr 2011:

A 1-1 draw away to sixth-placed team 1. FC Nürnberg wouldn't result in the dismissal of the manager in most clubs, but as everyone in Germany knows, Bayern Munich is a law unto itself at the best of times. Louis van Gaal was unceremoniously sacked for good and with immediate effect on Sunday, after last month's announcement that he would leave at the end of the season. These are the 11 (interrelated) reasons why it didn't work out:

1. It's the table, stupid.

52 points from 29 games. Fourth place. This is patently not enough for a team who wanted to challenge on all three fronts but can now only fight off demotion to the Europa League. Crashing out to a geriatric, chaotically coached Inter would have just about been forgivable, but possibly missing out on the Champions League millions certainly isn't. Back in January, Bayern president Uli Hoeness threatened to "get nervous" if qualification to UEFA's top competition was in danger, and he did. Jürgen Klinsmann was fired at precisely the same junction -- five matches to go in the league -- in 2009.

One important facet to bear in mind is that prior achievements traditionally count for little in the Bundesliga, where Sepp Herberger's "after the game is before the game" -- mantra rules supreme. Armin Veh couldn't invoke his championship with Stuttgart (2007) in his defense when the club decided to sack him the next season, and last year's double and Champions League final with Van Gaal in charge cut little ice at Säbenerstrasse in Munich, either. Bayern expect to be successful as a matter of course. It's a somewhat crude, short-termist approach. But this culture of enormous pressure is also one of the factors underlying the club's tremendous record of 20 championships in 42 years.

2. The World Cup.

Nine Bayern players were involved until the very end of the competition in South Africa, including Arjen Robben, who came back with a huge hole in his thigh muscle. Bayern has historically struggled after big tournaments and its slow start to the season repeated the pattern. Both the board and Van Gaal underestimated that problem. Bayern has been playing catch-up ever since.

3. Too many egos.

You don't get the "FC Hollywood"-tag for no reason. Bayern's tremendous experience and footballing competence at boardroom level has long been its strength and weakness. Guys like Franz Beckenbauer (honorary president), Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (CEO) are always on air, always speaking about players and performances and, by extension, about the manager. If you're German, you know what's in store for you. Did the Dutchman? Van Gaal famously claimed that Bayern suited him "like a warm coat" when he took office in July 2009 but probably underestimated the level of criticism and interference he'd have to put up with from his superiors. Bayern, too, wanted a strong, independent manager to begin with and knew that Van Gaal could be a prickly customer. But the board didn't realize that he would not be amenable at all to (mostly) constructive advice. And they couldn't fathom just how idiosyncratic his behavior would be.

4. Ill communication.

In November, Hoeness launched a full-frontal attack on Van Gaal -- or one last wake-up call. "He doesn't accept anyone's opinion, there's no point talking to him anymore," the former World Cup winner with West Germany said. Rummenigge consequently spent a lot of time on a diplomatic mission, trying to find some common ground between manager and president. But ultimately, he gave up, too. "It's not been possible at all to talk to Van Gaal in recent weeks", he explained on Tuesday. An employee who refuses to break bread with his boss(es) usually has a short shelf-life.

5. "I know best" -- "No, I do" -- "No, I."

There was huge amount of one-upmanship involved from the word go, from both sides. Van Gaal openly showed that he didn't value the board's soccer expertise very highly, a stance that had a knock-on effect on squad politics: Mario Gomez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, two expensive buys that had been signed before Van Gaal's arrival, were ignored and described as "not my players" by the manager. The disappointing form from both in 2009/10 seemed to prove Van Gaal right but Bayern felt he had actually undermined their confidence to make a point and in turn noted that his two transfers of that year, Danijel Pranjic and Edson Braafheid, didn't exactly set the Bundesliga alight either. An uneasy truce was reached in the wake of success at the end of that season, but matters came again to a head last summer, when the manager wrote a biography explaining his "football philosophy" and had the nerve to recommend that his superiors read it.

6. Transfer Policy.

Most Bayern players are bought by the sporting director, in conjunction with the manager. But coaches are routinely allowed to bring in one or two of their own targets. It's a mix-and-match approach that has obvious pros and cons but key to its success is a spirit of cooperation and compromise from both sides. In Van Gaal's first summer at the club, Bayern deferred to his wishes (Lucio out, Pranjic and Braafheid in) and there was little friction in that respect. But things took a dramatic turn to the worse when Van Gaal strongly vetoed all attempts to strengthen the team in defense after the lost Champions League final. He felt that the existing squad was good enough and promised to bring through more youngsters, as he had impressively done with Thomas Müller and Holger Badstuber before. The move backfired. Bayern's chronic vulnerability at the back prevented them from winning anything.

7. Tactical intransigence.

Van Gaal came to Munich with an open mind. He played a 4-4-2 diamond to begin with, and even tried a 3-3-3-1 before settling on 4-2-3-1 halfway through his first season. The formation brought the best out of many players and gave Bayern's play a sense of identity, something that hadn't been seen in Munich for quite a while. The season after, the formation became a dogma. He never diverted from it. Not when the opposition had worked out a way to deal with, not when specific games warranted it, nor when key players were injured. Instead, players were shuffled around inside the system and often ended up in very unfamiliar positions. A general loss of confidence and stability were the consequences. The kind of possession-based soccer that Van Gaal had drilled into the side couldn't work under these circumstances. "Our buildup play was too risky," captain Philipp Lahm ventured this week. One or two attempts by senior players to talk to the manager were brusquely dismissed not long ago.

8. Mark van Bommel.

To be sure, the 33-year-old was probably past his best this season. His passing was off and stats showed he was running less than before. Van Bommel, however, was a very important player in the dressing room, someone who had the ear of both the coach and high-maintenance characters like Franck Ribéry. Ushering him out the door -- he had fallen out with Van Gaal -- in January resulted in a lack of leadership on and off the pitch. It also undermined Bastian Schweinsteiger, who's only been half the player without the tough-tackling van Bommel covering his back. A half-decent Van Bommel would certainly have done a better job than Pranjic in central midfield.

9. The Neuer-Kraft affair.

It's long been a badly kept secret in Munich that Bayern have agreed personal terms with Schalke 04 and Germany keeper Manuel Neuer. In January, however, van Gaal decided to promote second keeper Thomas Kraft, 22, to the first team. The move was very bold but justifiable, as Kraft showed great talent. Hoeness' populist complaint that Kraft's introduction "unsettled the defense" wasn't quite true. The problem, as ever, was Van Gaal's handling of the situation. He didn't inform sporting director Christian Nerlinger, the man who had effectively saved him job in autumn 2009 by insisting that the Dutchman should be given more time. Nerlinger was offended and ceased to act as a buffer between the bosses and the increasingly combative coach. Kraft's ascent also resulted in quixotic anti-Neuer (and anti-Hoeness) demonstrations by Bayern's Ultra supporters who preferred Kraft, a man who'd come through the club's youth system, to the outspoken Schalke keeper, who used to be a die-hard S04 supporter as a teenager.

10. Man-Management.

Van Gaal's authoritarian style rubbed plenty of people the wrong way to begin with. After Luca Toni's move back to Italy (December '09), the majority of the players came to terms with the manager's harsh ways. Success on the pitch made them put up with him, even when he employed some unorthodox methods -- he once showed them his genitals -- to motivate them. Publicly, the players insisted van Gaal was treating them fairly but they felt increasingly exasperated as this car crash of a season progressed. Max Reckers, the video analyst, was a source of constant irritation: he patronized players and spoke to them as if they were school children.

After one particular bad dressing-down, Holger Badstuber was close to tears. Even Arjen Robben distanced himself from his compatriot. "His management style reminds me of that of Felix Magath," said Rummenigge. "It doesn't win you any friends."

11. Media fallout.

Journalists don't know jack. That was Van Gaal's default position. He might actually be right in some cases, but was it necessary to confront them with their (supposed) incompetence at very opportunity? Critical questions were dismissed as "parrot music," as an irrelevance. Senior TV journalists had trouble keeping it together in the face of a manager who treated every query as a personal insult. The media were certainly not the reason why he was sacked but Van Gaal's lack of even basic civility toward them ensured there was no one left to fight his corner when the chickens came home to roost.

 

[doctor_mac]

Is he too bonkers to be a sporting director? You'd need a confident, easy going and thick-skinned manager you'd think if Van Gaal is going to work with him.

 

[King Binny]

Also linked with Lazio today

Lazio President Claudio Lotito is considering the appointment of a foreign Coach – such as Dutch legend Louis Van Gaal.

According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, the man sacked by Bayern Munich in April 2011 is a possible target.

The Biancocelesti are looking for a new tactician after Edy Reja announced his intention to quit the Olimpico outfit.

Van Gaal, 60, is not the only big name being linked with the job though, as Galatasaray’s Fatih Terim and Didier Deschamps of Marseille are being mentioned too.

Terim has Serie A experience with Fiorentina and Milan, while former Juve midfielder Deschamps bossed the Old Lady in Serie B following Calciopoli.

Van Gaal has taken charge of AZ, Ajax, Barcelona and the Holland national side in his career to date.

Italian names associated with Lazio in recent weeks included Gianfranco Zola, Gian Piero Gasperini, Walter Mazzarri of Napoli, Gigi Del Neri and Chelsea’s Roberto Di Matteo.

 

[refugee]

You can always call him Dick Van Gaal if he arrives

Good thinking

 

[King Binny]

Dated Feb 2011:

Juventus' ex-Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni on Thursday revealed how coach Louis van Gaal once proved he had 'the balls' to drop any of Bayern's stars - by dropping his trousers.

Having joined Bayern from Fiorentina in 2007, Toni, 33, was Bayern's top scorer in his first season when he scored 24 goals in 31 league games as Bayern won the Bundesliga title.

But he played just four league games under van Gaal before he switched to AS Roma in the January winter break at the start of 2010 and was not one of van Gaal's first-choice players.

"Van Gaal simply didn't want to work with me, he treats players like interchangeable objects," said Toni.

The Italian told German magazine Sport Bild about the time van Gaal proved to Bayern's superstars, including Dutchman Arjen Robben, Germany's Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger how he was man enough to drop any of his players.

"The coach wanted to make clear to us that he can drop any player, it was all the same to him because, as he said, he had the balls," said Toni.

"He demonstrated this literally (by dropping his trousers). I have never experienced anything like it, it was totally crazy. Luckily I didn't see a lot, because I wasn't in the front row."

Toni is not the first ex-Bayern player to criticise van Gaal as former captain Lucio has said the coach was part of the reason he left Munich in July 2009.

"Van Gaal hurt me more than anyone else in football," said Brazil defender Lucio who won the Champions League title with Inter Milan last season.

Van Gaal was criticised last October by Bayern president Uli Hoeness for being hard to work with and ex-captain Mark van Bommel quit the club suddenly last week to join AC Milan with rumours he found it hard to work with van Gaal.

On Wednesday, Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge backed van Gaal by insisting the Dutchman is exactly what the German giants need.

Van Gaal has a contract at Bayern until June 2012.

 

[Oncy]

Hahahaha awesome. I want him as manager.

 

[gene hughes]

It'll make great tv!

 

[King Binny]

Dated Apr 2011:

From the Netherlands has sprung Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Dennis Bergkamp and Total Football. Since 2002 it has also been the home of an integrated professional and amateur network of 2,700 clubs that this week Uefa stated should be the model that English football adopts if it is ever to replicate the kind of success enjoyed by Dutch players and teams.

Whereas Cruyff and his compatriots have helped Holland to three World Cup finals and victory at Euro 88, England have contested only one World Cup and two European Championship semi-finals since Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy 45 years ago. This week William Gaillard, the adviser to Uefa's president, Michel Platini, identified English football's factional nature and lack of significant funding as the fault lines that blight the sport here.

Gaillard told a parliamentary select committee that the Football Association should look to the Netherlands if England is ever going to address the malaise in player development. He said: "There is no doubt that turf wars have damaged English football, and the FA is probably in a weaker spot than any other in Europe. Holland is an excellent grassroots model."

A tour around amateur clubs in the Amsterdam area showed the stark difference in facilities between the Netherlands and England. Clubs such as ASV Arsenal, Sporting Martinus, SC Buitenveldert, Swift, AFC, SV Bijlmer and Legmeervogels boast facilities that always include floodlit grass and artificial turf pitches, dedicated medical centres, warm changing rooms, hot showers, spacious clubhouses and adequate car parking and bicycle ports – all of which placed the clubs at the centre of their local communities.

Their structure is also more professional than amateur. Dennis van Soest, who runs the commercial affairs of Legmeervogels, says: "Legmeer has 1,250 members. The owners are the members. Control and management is executed by the board of directors, which consists of 10 persons, of which five are part of the daily board. We have a chairman who is responsible for the youth department.

"Daily maintenance is done by our facilities' managers. We have around 200 active volunteers and 120 companies that sponsor our association. Membership costs on average €180 [£160] per year."

Broadly, the Dutch model that allows all this has been in place for nine years. Louis van Gaal, then the national coach, integrated the sport across six regions on behalf of the Dutch FA, the KNVB. This pyramid consists of the 2,700 clubs – of which 36 are professional – that are governed by a single body, the KNVB, with the amateur game benefiting from €1bn a year of investment.

The KNVB has around 1.2 million members (7% of the Dutch population), with local authorities contributing 90% of the €1bn investment and the government the remainder. English football's ongoing dispute between the FA, the Premier League and the Football League has resulted in inferior funding for the amateur game, in comparison to the Netherlands.

In 2000 the Football Foundation stated that the FA would contribute £20m per annum to grassroots football in England. Yet by last year the FA's contribution was only £12m. The Premier League contributes £43.4m, less than 5% of its latest £3.1bn TV rights deal.

In the Netherlands the key ethos is that all age-group teams should play 4-3-3 and that coaching sessions should be fun, with individuality allowed whether players are future stars of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and FC Twente or destined to remain in the grassroots game. Competitive youth football is also played between professional and amateur clubs, which means standards between the sport's two strands are closer.

In England winning, not enjoyment, has traditionally been the end game. And it would be unheard of for a youth side from Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool to play against, say, an equivalent team from the Civil Service or Enfield Old Grammarians.

Bryan Roy, the former Nottingham Forest and Holland forward, is a coach at the Jong Ajax academy, which is a renowned conveyer belt of fresh talent. He confirms the closer dynamic between the amateur and professional game. "Until the age of 14 our teams from professional clubs still play against teams from amateur clubs," he says. "Holland's overall football philosophy is to always focus on ball possession to create opportunities. This is also true at amateur clubs. In the youth they always think in an attacking way."

In 2008 one enlightened English father, Steve Lawrence, decided to harness the Dutch vision by moving his family to Amsterdam so that his then 16-year-old son, Jamie, could improve his development there, after he had formerly been with Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers. Jamie began at HFC Haarlem, then a professional club, and is now at Ajax. His father was the architect of the original feasibility study and master plan for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

He submitted written evidence to the same parliamentary select committee that Gaillard addressed. "I've visited about 60 or 70 amateur football clubs [in the Netherlands]. On average they have around €3-4m of facilities [in] land and buildings. That's about €10bn in total. Effectively, they're all better than the standard academies in England so Holland has 2,700 academies. It's no surprise that Holland is No2 in the Fifa world rankings."

While the two nations have an almost identical population density, they are on very different points on the development scale. Roy states that Holland is intent on becoming more successful on the field. "We tend to focus more on tactics instead of technical improvements – that's the next step," he says.

English football's dream is to have only this concern.

 

[King Binny]

Dated May 2010:

Louis van Gaal's first act as Bayern Munich manager was to shut himself in a monastery for a month. Inspired by its ascetic ethos, the Dutchman totally immersed himself in the intensive German lessons offered by enterprising monks and emerged with more than merely a decent grasp of modal verbs.

Most managers would refuse even to contemplate spending a large chunk of the summer break cloistered away from secular society in an abstemious parallel universe, but Van Gaal's retreat into a religious order this time last year proved emblematic of the 58-year-old's modus operandi.

Startlingly left-field, yet intensely conservative, eminently logical, but invariably imaginative, Van Gaal is a supreme strategist whose blend of industry and innovation has helped him to choreograph four teams in three countries to 18 major trophies, the latest with Bayern's 4-0 demolition of Werder Bremen in the German Cup final yesterday.

Aware that Bavarians expect Bayern's manager to speak their language, he typically mastered essential German in the fastest possible time. Next up was the initially vexing, ultimately successful mission to become the first Dutch coach to win the Bundesliga and, now, Van Gaal is attempting to squeeze even greater job satisfaction from his inaugural season at the club dubbed "FC Hollywood".

On Saturday, in Madrid, club football's most glittering prize is up for grabs when a martinet capable of accruing enemies even faster than silverware aims to mastermind a Champions League triumph at Internazionale's expense.

Already, a German media bearing scars inflicted by the former Ajax, Barcelona, Holland and AZ Alkmaar coach's infamous sarcasm has dubbed a clash that pits him against his one-time assistant at Barcelona, José Mourinho, as "God v The Son of God".

Despite both boasting out-size egos, the pair remain good friends, regularly exchanging warm texts as they bask in the European limelight.

"This is going to be one Champions League final where the coaches, rather than the players, dominate attention," Glenn Roeder says. In 2007, the then Newcastle manager was "Van Gaaled" when AZ knocked his side out of the Uefa Cup after an extraordinary second leg in Holland. It began with the sound of a high-volume recording of Winston Churchill's "We shall never surrender" speech crackling over the stadium Tannoy as kick-off beckoned, as the home manager, trailing 4-2, sought a psychological advantage. "You can never overestimate Van Gaal," Roeder adds. "He's one of the world's great coaches; José Mourinho won't be complacent."

Mourinho says that while the late Sir Bobby Robson taught him the value of shrewd man-management, Van Gaal highlighted the importance of preparation and strong defence.

If both finalists are very much systems men, sharing an almost evangelical belief that, by dint of tactical ingenuity, the manager is king, they remain far from footballing soulmates.

Van Gaal remains considerably more attack-minded than his Portuguese rival, permitting significantly greater scope for improvisation within the parameters of any tactical framework, but Mourinho's man-management is considerably more evolved. Many would say it possesses the emotional intelligence lacking in his unashamedly old-school mentor, who was required to rebuild a reputation shattered by a disastrous stint in charge of the Dutch national side, culminating in the so-called Clockwork Oranje's failure to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.

You would certainly be unlikely to catch Inter's coach emulating Van Gaal and screaming insults in the face of Franck Ribéry after the over-heated winger dared to sit down and take his boots off during a scorching training session last summer. Or to see Mourinho spot Luca Toni slumping in the canteen over lunch and immediately stride over, angrily pull one of his ears and order him to sit up straight.

Although Toni is now on loan at Roma and Van Gaal's relationship with Ribéry remains uneasy, the realisation among Bayern's players – particularly younger homegrown ones – that he is capable of improving them beyond recognition permits him to take some breathtakingly Clough-like liberties.

It is no coincidence that the 20-year-old forward Thomas Müller and the 21-year-old defender Holger Badstuber have emerged from the youth ranks to keep Ribéry and company unexpectedly on their toes during a season when Bastian Schweinsteiger has also surpassed himself in midfield.

Roeder adds: "Van Gaal generally has more success with younger players who fully appreciate what he's doing for them than with more cynical older stars; maybe that's why his time in charge of Holland didn't work out. But he's a brilliant, brilliant coach and even difficult players respect that."

At Bayern, it also helps that he is not Jürgen Klinsmann. Supporters had come to loathe their former manager's Americanised obsession with image and swiftly realised Klinsmann's slickly spun, relentlessly positive soundbites, plastic smiles and careful placement of Buddhist statues in training-ground lounges masked clay feet. Tactless and taciturn, Van Gaal was eagerly embraced as an "authentic" antidote.

In return, Bayern's so-called Tulip General is seeking to relight the flame of perfection he first sparked when his Ajax team – which featured, among many other extravagant talents, Jari Litmanen, Frank Rijkaard, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars and Edgar Davids – effectively redefined Total Football.

"We play very attractively at Bayern," says Van Gaal, a stickler for formal manners, who faced the sack last autumn after indifferent results. "We are always looking to attack and put opponents under incredible pressure."

It has been much the same since Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal exchanged life as a slow and stocky, but eye-catchingly sweet-passing, Sparta Rotterdam midfielder for a coach's tracksuit at Ajax.

"I have my own ways, I'm not going to change and I have no desire to," says the unusually unmaterialistic multi‑millionaire, who, to his wife's dismay, disdains fancy restaurants, designer watches and male fashion. "My way is a footballing philosophy more than a system. A system depends on the players – I've played 4-3-3 with Ajax, 2-3-2-3 with Barcelona and 4-4-2 with AZ – but a philosophy is for life.

"The coach is the team's focal point, so preparing the tactical formation is essential. Every player must know where he has to be and support his team-mates. There has to be absolute discipline and mutual understanding. Discipline is the basis of creativity and flexibility."

Although he claims immunity to the vagaries of popular opinion, Van Gaal does sometimes bend his rules, slightly. At Barcelona, where his falling out with Rivaldo over the Brazilian's penchant for unscripted dribbling still raises eyebrows, he compromised over the training regime. "Spanish players refused to do the running he demanded," Roeder says. "So he introduced the ball to every session. The players thought they'd won, but ended up running just as much."

Despite his formidably cold, cutting and sometimes contemptuous public persona, Van Gaal has aspiring coaches jostling for placements under his wing and Adam Sadler, the former Norwich City assistant manager and now No2 at Gateshead, visited AZ as part of his Pro Licence.

"I had sky-high expectations," he says. "But Louis van Gaal exceeded them. He was welcoming and open. He's a man of integrity and strong moral values who demands maximum concentration. He doesn't let players relax."

In past years, the Dutchman has claimed to be coveted by Manchester United and England, but Roeder questions his suitability. "Van Gaal spends hours on passing drills and technique," he says. "They're things a lot of English players don't enjoy – which is why we're not as good, technically, as we could be."

During the dark days of last autumn, when Bayern drifted towards Bundesliga obscurity, there was a feeling Van Gaal might not be right for Munich either. Elimination from the Champions League group stages looked likely, dressing-room dissent festered, everyone was mystified when he deployed a 3-3-3-1 formation against Hamburg and dismissal loomed.

A watershed arrived when the still-struggling coach addressed Bayern's important AGM in November. Privately thrilled by his uncompromising refusal to bow to chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's demands for weekly debriefs and a consistent two-man strike force, the audience greeted Van Gaal's startlingly honest speech with wholesale applause. Dressing-room rebels took note, the manager mellowed a little and a corner was turned.

Although fortune continued to smile on Bayern's less-than-serene Champions League progress, their one- and two-touch game was turning into an art form, a reborn Mark van Bommel invariably controlled midfield and a miraculously fit Arjen Robben revelled in the form of his life.

Much to the relief of his second wife Truus, Van Gaal – whose first spouse, Fernanda, the mother of his two daughters, died of cancer in 1994 – had once again prevailed against adversity. "Louis is actually extremely warm-hearted, but he doesn't get the idea of being nice to people he doesn't think are nice," she says. "He's also very honest and naive. Almost no one is as honest as him. It makes life difficult, but Louis has this complete belief in himself and his methods."

 

[Fabio]

Amazing

 

[Shadey]

So would Van Gaal work along side of martinez ??

 

[doctor_mac]

Whatever happens, I'm going to buy a good biography on Van Gaal before this is out.

 

[RolandG]

By Duncan WhiteLast Updated: 12:15AM BST 27/05/2012
Liverpool have made the first steps towards appointing Louis van Gaal as sporting director after meeting with him in Portugal last week.

There are, though, complications as to whether the Dutchman’s methods match the way the Fenway Sports Group are seeking to restructure the club.

Van Gaal has been spending the summer at his house near Albufeira in the Algarve and it is understood that Ian Ayre, Liverpool’s managing director, flew out to meet him last week.

There are very few available candidates that possess Van Gaal’s pedigree. He has been out of work since falling into dispute with Ajax and Johan Cruyff.

While Van Gaal wants to be a head coach or manager, and has had plenty of offers, he recognises that Liverpool is a unique opportunity for him, even if it means working in a different role.

He has won titles in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany with Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively and wants to test himself in English football.

The difficulties lie in Van Gaal being able to adapt to how Liverpool want their new structure to work. The first issue will be how comfortable the new manager would be working with Van Gaal, especially if it is a young manager like Brendan Rodgers or Roberto Martínez.

Rodgers and Martinez are the leading contenders to succeed Kenny Dalglish. Martinez met John W Henry, the principal owner, in Miami last week while Rodgers is thought to be back in serious contention after intially declining a meeting with Liverpool.

Such is FSG’s admiration for Martínez that, after sacking Damien Comolli in April, they considered approaching him for the role of director of football. At Wigan he has had a lot of control about the way the club works and he will be reluctant to cede too much influence to a sporting director at Liverpool.

Van Gaal has a reputation for setting the highest standards and being forthright to the point of arrogance. When he was technical director of Ajax in 2004, his demands caused him to fall out with head coach Ronald Koeman. Van Gaal ended up resigning.

Another issue is that, in all his previous jobs, Van Gaal has taken a substantial staff with him, made up of coaches and analysts. It is understood that he would want to bring key people with him to help infuse his football philosophy.

Andries Jonker, his former assistant at Bayern, has announced that he will be leaving Munich this summer, giving rise to speculation that he will be joining up with Van Gaal again. Van Gaal would also want to bring Frans Hoek with him, the innovative goalkeeping coach who Pepe Reina credits with developing his distinctive style at Barcelona.

Liverpool, though, have apparently refused to accept Steve Clarke’s resignation as first team coach, and only appointed Kevin Keen as a coach last summer, so may seek some continuity in this area. Then, of course, any new manager is surely going to want to bring some trusted coaching staff along with him.

To add to this complicated picture, FSG are also contemplating appointing a technical director as well as a sporting director. They felt that Comolli was taking on too much as director of football and want to divide the responsibilities into two jobs. Pep Segura, the technical manager of the Liverpool academy, is the favourite for the technical director role.

The next step for the owners is to decide whether to meet Van Gaal personally and find a way to resolve the issues that his appointment would bring, or whether to look for a candidate who, while not having Van Gaal’s track record, would prove a more straightforward fit for the way they want to run the club.

 

[King Binny]

Segura interview in 2009 (courtesy of Paul Grech)

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-liverpool-busca-fijar-estilo/20090531dasdaiftb_58/Tes

"Luis is a manager who actually makes the team grow and leads the club. He offers a style, a working method and teaches it"

"I have not found a person of his ability and judgment, even for the grassroots."

 

[RolandG]

LVG is quite a character but a winner all the same. I'm leaning towards. A LVG-Martinez axis and Pep Seguera in a technical director capacity looks a winner to me.

 

[Mamma Mia]

He's a lot like Rafa. I would be happy to have him at the club.

 

[gkmacca]

He's proven. That's what they need at this stage.