As most of you here are aware, I've always supported Louis Van Gaal since he was first announced as the new manager of Manchester United. Up until recently, I still held that perspective. With the recent loss the Southampton, I've finally had enough. To illustrate my thinking, I want to communicate this very clearly, and I want to outline something first.

• I DO NOT like firing managers

In my opinion, when you fire a manager, you are losing everything that they built. It is one of the reasons I was so against the firing of men like Mourinho and Carlo. They have built success, in a league and UCL win, at the club they were at, in the previous year no less. However, I have reached the point where I no longer value what Van Gaal has built already, and more to the point, I do not value what he will build in the future.

Regarding Van Gaal specifically in a positive manner:

He has shored up the United defence. There can be no doubt or argument against this. From the crummy system we had in the end day of Fergie, to the season with Moyes, and even leaking into Van Gaal's first season (5-3 against Leicester anyone), we now have a solid defence that rarely concedes.

United are conceding 0.82 goals per game across all competitions.

This is something that certainly should not be overlooked. Most managers would kill for that level of defensive production. In fact, from open play, opponents rarely score versus United at all. Out of the 29 goals scored against United this season, only 18 were scored from open play. (That's from memory, there may be some more set piece goals I've forgotten). That is stupid good. Minus set piece goals, United allow 0.51 goals a game, or one in every two games, which is outstanding. Out of the 35 games United has played this season, they have shut out their opponents in 17 of them.

Another positive aspect of Van Gaal is his willingness to play academy players, and other young talent. Borthwick-Jackson, Varela, McNair, Lingard, these players would not be getting chances under a different manager. His treatment of Depay and Januzaj are exceptions to this general rule, however. In addition, the buy of Anthony Martial was genius.

However, despite these good qualities, there are several things that trump them by some weight. I'll be as brief as I can, while still giving a solid explanation.

- Attacking Players

Whoever said defence wins games is an idiot. United has one of the best statistical defence records of all time and has won 16 out of 35 matches (barely over 50% for those of you who suck at math). How the actual fuck can this happen? Look at the players Van Gaal has had in attack, and look at their return:

Wayne Rooney. Top scorer in United history.
Anthony Martial. One of, if not the best young striker in the world.
Memphis Depay. Adjusting to the premier league, I'll give him a pass.
Juan Mata. This guy was the top chance creator in all of Europe when he moved to United. In the Southampton game, not a single chance was created by the team, let alone Mata, who came on as a sub in any case.

Other players who have now left:
Robin Van Persie: Yeah, he's too old for this now.
Angel Di Maria: I understand his move away was off the field related, but the entire time he was here could've and should've been handled better.
Javier Hernandez: Don't even get me started on this guy.

These attackers that have played at United since Van Gaal arrived are unquestionably elite, if not world class. Four left in disgrace, and four remain, failing to perform. Clearly, United is currently a place where attackers go to die.

- The Philosophy

Ahh, the philosophy. Possession, passing, control. Those three main aspects are what constitute "the philosophy." Whoopie. We've got the possession, clearly. There are exceptions, but most of the time United holds somewhere between 60-70% possession in a match. Fine, whatever. The passing has been good too. Someone passes, they find someone else. Not rocket science. Control, yes there's that too. Although United isn't quite as good in this category, they still control almost every game they play.

But see, there's this problem. This formula, this philosophy, it doesn't win. And it can't. Because first, it's not direct enough, and two, it limits the individual creativity of the players.

Even when Barcelona and Bayern played tiki-taka and possession based styles, they relied on the creativity of the central midfielders and wingers/strikers. Xavi and Ineista are prime examples of this, combining with Messi and Villa in particular. All really smart players, who could see what needed to be done and did it. Bayern is much the same, the creativity coming from Muller, Alaba, Thiago, and Lewa. When Bastian was there under Pep, he also displayed those attributes, which is why everyone naturally assumed he'd be a great signing for Van Gaal's possession style.

But he wasn't. In fact, in many games Bastian has been the worst player on the field. How can that be?

The obvious conclusion I've come to, is that Van Gaal values control over all else in a game. Don't take the 50/50, or even 60/40 pass. Take the 80/20. Now, not only does this eliminate creativity for individual players, but it highly restricts several other aspects of the game, namely:

Direct play
Counterattacking
Through balls
Combination
All play inside the 18

As anyone who has ever watched a United game this season is perfectly aware of, United moves the ball well through the entire field, only to fall to pieces around the box. This is because they simply run out of space, or the pass that guarantees continued possession is the one back, not forwards.

This ensures that United's most creative players, Mata, Schweinstager, Januzaj, Depay, Herrera, Carrick, are not only restricted, but basically doomed to failure. Herrera specifically has been benched due to "not working in the system" which I can and will literally translate to "he's takes too many chances with his passes."

Here's the problem. You don't get to break down a team playing a high percentage pass. If a player on any team plays a through ball the results in a goal, I can almost guarantee that there was a defender within an inch or two of making an interception. This is the Premier League. The defenders are too smart for that, especially when they know it isn't coming.

35 goals scored in the Premier League and Champions League group stage this season, in a total of 29 games. This is an average of 1.2 goals per game, keeping in mind that 12 of those goals were scored in 4 games.

You can't score goals consistently in this philosophy, let alone win games.

- The lack of trust in players

This is basically the control aspect again. I understand wanting to be positionally sound defensively, but screw that for attacking. As far as I'm concerned, players like Rooney-Mata-Martial-Depay are smart enough to know how and when to move, if they were not chained to their positions.

- Defensive Set Pieces

I don't give a damn about how well you defend open play, if you allow set piece goals, that's it. Instead of complaining about how poor we are at set pieces, I think I'll let the results do the talking:

Bouremouth: 2 set piece goals
Watford: 1
Southampton: 1
Newcastle: 1
Stoke: 1
Wolfsburg: 2
CSKA: 1
PSV:1
Burgge: 1

More math: That's 10 points dropped in the league, and a diabolical 7 points dropped in Champions League. If we could have those points back, even with all of our attacking woes, we'd be tied for Leicester at the top of the league and we'd have finished first in our CL group.

Think about that for a second.

I realize that a manager often cannot influence set pieces. But this constant conceding is an open wound begging to have a bandage put on it. And yet we've not improved at all, with our most recent defeat coming at the hands of the dreaded set piece.

- The Champions League

United got the best group they could've gotten. They still don't get through, mainly due to stupid (and preventable) conceding, and an awful 0-0 draw at home to PSV that embodied everything wrong with Van Gaal. No real chances created, and a 0-0.

- The money spent

This is where it truly hurts me. For 250 million pounds, United could have bought anyone in the world multiple times over. Bale? Why not? Pogba? Join the party. James? Course. Lewa? We've got room. All of those players I just mentioned could be bought for 250 million pounds TOGETHER. Instead, we've got Jesse Lingard as a starting winger, and Daley Blind playing centre back. I'm sorry what? I'm not against playing young players, but you SPEND 250 MILLION AND YOUR RETURN ON THAT WAS AN INABILITY TO SCORE AND CONCEDE A BUTTLOAD OF SET PIECES?

I honestly cannot comprehend that. 250 million and the only real world-class player on the team is De Gea, and maybe Smalling. Both of course, were here already, before Van Gaal.

Unbelievable.

Van Gaal out.

Time to bring in Ryan Giggs..... he will treat every player like his brother ... ooh Wait ... nah

@raimondo: I agree. But most of the revenue that United will be generating will due to jersey sales, and other contracts. For example, Adidas has a contract with us to win EPL or make it to semi finals of UCL in 3 years (Contract signed earlier this year) to pay us a whopping 90 odd Mil per year. Now compared to this, the TV revenue you talk about is not going to be much. In addition, we will not be able to keep quality players, which means we will not be able to make UCL for another year...so all in all, a finish outside top 4 would be detrimental to the club.

@JozeMourinho I know I shouldn't, but I'm laughing so hard right now! XD

Amusing Joze.

@SunFlash I am sorry if you did not like it my intentions was not to annoy you. If you contact an admin I would not mind it deleted if you think it derails the thread :).

I wasn't being sarcastic...

Doesn't matter either sarcastic or not I am pretty sure you get what I mean.

Two more conceded set piece goals -

Another loss that should never happen.

Sigh.

You have my sympathy sunflash... :( Its very sad to see manchester united concede like that.

I have given up on trying to back LVG. He should get sacked at the end of the season.

Wow, louis, is that Rashford as you're profile? You must really be annoyed by LVG, I'm sorry to hear you couldn't bear to support him any longer, don't worry lad though. I'm sure thing will get better for United. LVG will also most likely find success somewhere else. Just keep your faith in your team. Also, Rashford is a really good young, its cool to have as your profile pic. :)

Thx Emobot! :)

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/man-utd-van-gaal-statistics-11168815

If this guy isn't gone before next season, I'm going to crawl under a rock until it's over.

I do not really blame him for the loss. Had Fosu-Mensah stayed, I do not think Spurs would have scored. I've been telling this all year...Darmian is not good enough for Man United. He was exposed by Arsenal, and everyone has been taking advantage of him since. Selling Rafael was the worst mistake LVG made. I do not think he would have played Darmian if everyone in the team was fit. Injuries ruined our season. I think the team is on the right track. I do however have an issue with his team selection. You do not play both Carrick and Schneiderlin at the same time. Every time he's played Herrera with one of these two, we've had much better games, if not for the results. His results in big games in EPL have been good enough in my book, if not stellar. In all honesty, I'd give him another year just for the fact that he's played a lot of youth whether it was due to injuries or personal choice.

Somewhat degrading, but funny nonetheless:

@SunFlash I don't how its degradin, one thing for sure, its funny as hell. I already saw it before though, someone posted a link to an article with it in it. Its still pretty good.

Ashwin: another year... i dont think so... jesus its hard to watch our games. The reason why we are not too low is because of De Gea.

I hadn't given much thought to it, but seeing as how Barca and Madrid have seen solid managerial performances from their B team managers when given the chance to handle the A team, anyone think maybe United should give Warren Joyce a shot? The United U-21's just won like their 4th title in the last 5 years.

At this point, it doesn't take much to be better than LVG so I think he would do fine.