"I am who I am" The Genius of Louis van Gaal
"I am who I am: confident, arrogant, dominant, honest, hard-working and innovative." These are the words used by Louis van Gaal to describe himself during his first press-conference as manager of Bayern Munich in 2009. If you had asked him to describe himself after being appointed to his first managerial position in 1991, he would have given the same answer. Louis van Gaal has never been a man short on self-confidence, with outbursts of self-pride that would make even Mourinho blush, the Dutchman has combined his footballing genius and indestructible confidence to become the champion of Holland, Spain, Germany, and indeed, all of Europe. His eccentricities make him one of the most peculiar men in the history of the game, but also one of the most successful, and certainly one of the most influential.
Born in a city where freedom, personal expression and creativity are considered a historic right, Van Gaal preached structure and discipline from his first day as manager of Ajax, and it has been one of the foundations upon which he has built his career. To understand the Van Gaal system is not to simply understand the 4-3-3 or 3-3-1-3 or 4-4-2. The formations Van Gaal has used throughout his illustrious career are merely vessels for a footballing ideology that is at the very core of his being, and woe to those who oppose it. As his former player Frank de Boer put it, "He is open to other ideas, but they must understand he will not budge." This type of fundamentalism may seem strange, and even somewhat mad (indeed, it is probably both) but there is a distinct method in Van Gaal's madness, and it has allowed him to be a unrelenting winner over the past two decades.
The Philosophy of Louis van Gaal
"Football is a team sport, and the members of the team are therefore dependent on each other. I
f certain players do not carry out their tasks properly on the pitch, then their colleagues will suffer. This means that each player has to carry out his basic tasks to the best of his ability, and this requires a disciplined approach on the pitch. In my opinion this can only be achieved if there is discipline off the pitch." This is, in basic terms, Louis van Gaal's philosophy, which has been instilled into every team he has managed since his first day at Ajax in 1991. His tactics can be analyzed and scrutinized in every way imaginable, but if you fail to understand the philosophy behind it all, then you fail to truly understand Van Gaal.
The discipline Van Gaal instills into his teams goes beyond tactical and mental discipline on the pitch; it is a fundamental requirement of the player's everyday life. This means arriving early for training sessions, keeping your belongings organized and neat,
looking after your body, being on the team bus punctually, talking to your teammates regularly, and so on. This discipline allows for greater communication between the players and also between the coaches. This could mean everything from players talking to each other over what they felt went wrong during a match, to tactical discussions amongst the coaches, to Van Gaal talking to his players on a daily basis over previous matches and what the course for the future should be. Van Gaal has said that his experience as a teacher has allowed him to know when to interfere and when to observe or listen, a crucial skill to have as a manager, and it is this ability that helps him earn the respect of his players.
Communication is absolutely essential to Van Gaal, as it allows for the most famous part of his philosophy to succeed, the concept of team-building:
"In football, everything depends on the team aspect. It is therefore important that each player knows what the others can and can't do. You have to discover each other's skills, and this automatically leads to a good mutual understanding, which is the basis for the result.
All players have to learn to put the team first."
This is the ultimate goal for Van Gaal when he begins training a new squad. Yes, possession, fluid rotational movement and tactical discipline are what his teams practice, but all of these attributes are the products of his team-building practices. It is a relentless and fundamental commitment to the collective over the individual, and if a player cannot adapt to these demands, he will not be tolerated as a member of the team. This style of management has been deemed authoritarian by many in the press, but Van Gaal insists it is anything but. He communicates with his players and coaches on a daily basis, and because of this communication, everyone within the club knows the course which they are on and what goals need to be accomplished. It is a simple thing, but many clubs fail in this aspect, which manifests itself on the pitch.
Style of Play
"
Running is for animals. You need a brain and a ball for football" Van Gaal is dedicated to the traditional Dutch way of playing i.e. maintaining the majority of possession, fluid movement amongst players, pressing, and an ideological commitment to attacking. He has not used one particular formation throughout his career, as he adapts it to accommodate the players at his disposal. Van Gaal has always been adamant that he does not require his clubs to spend big money on new signings, as he is someone who "wants to-and can-improve players." This can especially be seen in his commitment to developing youth players. The likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Alaba, and Muller have all made their first team debuts under Van Gaal, who always keeps one member of the previous coaching staff on-board to advise on such subjects.
Possession is the foundation of the Van Gaal system, and his teams will always shoot for, at the very minimum, 52% of the ball. There are several reason behind his commitment to possession:
- The ability to dictate the pace of the game
- The saving of energy so they can be stronger later in the game when the opposition is feeling the strain of chasing the ball all game. "Ajax trains its players to run as little as possible on the pitch."
- Dominating possession means the opposition has fewer chances to create goal-scoring opportunities.
- Dominating possession with crisp passing means there is a high likelihood of being able to drag the opposition defence out of their shape, creating dangerous goal-scoring opportunities.
Van Gaal's teams build up play from the back, and the goalkeeper rarely kicks the ball long. Since his days at Ajax, Van Gaal has believed that the playmaker is not the player behind the striker, but the holding player. This is because the space the number 10 plays in has become too constricted for him to fully operate in, but the player sitting just in front of the back four usually has the time and space to pick out passes and initiate attacking moves.You won't see Van Gaal play an enforcer type player in his midfield, instead, the holding player is usually the most tactically intelligent and most sound passer in the team. This means he doesn't give the ball away, is always reading the situation and adjusting his positioning accordingly, and keeps the flow of possession moving fluidly.
Another basic characteristic of Van Gaal teams is their ability to manipulate the space on the pitch. You will never see two players occupying the same space at the same time. If one player comes forward, another will move back, if one player takes up a position on the wing, another will move towards the midfield. This pattern of movement is repeated all across the pitch over the course of the game, and it is a major factor in his teams' ability to maintain possession and create goal-scoring opportunities. The game is all about controlling space, and Van Gaal's teams are drilled in this concept on a daily basis. This means his teams are more organized, disciplined, and efficient than their opponents the majority of the time, giving them a greater chance of success.
When Van Gaal's style is discussed, it is often compared to the style of another Dutchman, Johan Cruyff. This is because they represent two sides of the same ideological coin. Both want to play attacking, attractive football, but both have different ways of achieving this. Cruyff built up his teams by building up brilliant individuals, whereas Van Gaal always built his teams through the idea of the collective. This isn't to say that individuals aren't allowed to express themselves in Van Gaal's system, but whatever action they take has to come with the team in mind first, and their personal glory second. Because of this, Van Gaal teams have traditionally been; Organized, disciplined, efficient, hard-working, and intelligent. His teams resemble less a group of talented individuals, and more of a machine where every player is a working cog, doing his job to the best of his ability to keep the machine running cleanly and beautifully.
On Tottenham
Over the past several weeks, it has been made clear that Louis Van Gaal could well be the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur after he completes his duties at the World Cup. This is incredibly exciting not only for Tottenham, but the Premier League as a whole (if not for anything more than having Van Gaal and Mourinho in the same league). There is a small group of managers in world football who are impossible to pass up on, and Van Gaal is one of them. It is not just his proven track record of success, it is the fact that he lays the groundwork for clubs to be successful in the long term. With the seemingly perpetual rebuilding process Tottenham is involved in season after season, Van Gaal offers hope that he will not only win now, but set Tottenham on a course of consistency that could see them break into the Champions League hierarchy on a constant basis.
-The New Libero A Football Blog on the Tactics of the Game - Past, Present, and Future
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