Animated Klopp can spell the end for ‘boring’ LVG yet again
LOUIS VAN GAAL has claimed the animated touchline antics of his old rival Jurgen Klopp won’t give Liverpool any advantage in today’s fascinating contrast of managerial styles at Anfield.
Van Gaal lost his job at Bayern Munich in 2011 shortly after defeat by Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and another loss to the German this afternoon could end his career at Old Trafford.
But despite United fans urging the 64-year-old to show some passion on the touchline, Van Gaal does not think Klopp’s jumping around and talking to officials does any good.
‘I don’t think the referees in England are influenced by what the manager or the fans do,’ Van Gaal insisted. ‘I know a lot of fans like a manager who is showing passion but the effect is not so important. You need to control your passion.
‘Every manager has his own personality and philosophy. When I started my career I did that also. But I don’t think you can influence from the line.
‘You can influence by changing or communicating with players and that is why I sometimes come to the line. But I don’t stand there for 90 minutes.’
Van Gaal prefers to play the elder statesman although it will be interesting to see if his assistant Ryan Giggs allows Klopp to have things all his own way or tries to intervene in the technical area.
Van Gaal has acted every
role from dictator to victim as he has desperately tried to explain away United’s disappointing season.
Building up to his and the club’s biggest game of the season, he has struck a more laid-back note, joking with reporters that extra security at the club’s training ground was in case anyone was carrying a revolver to shoot him.
Within the corridors at Old Trafford and on the training pitch, however, there is a growing feeling that he will not see out the final year of his contract next season – even if he gets that far.
In the week in which Klopp revealed he was sounded out by Alex Ferguson for the Old Trafford job when he retired, it is tempting to speculate whether United ended up with the wrong man. In terms of personality, style and tactics, Klopp and Van Gaal are chalk and cheese – evident when they were rivals in Germany.
Van Gaal won a domestic double and reached the Champions League final in 2009-10 – his first season at Bayern – beating Klopp’s Dortmund twice including a 5-1 victory at their Westfalenstadion.
But the following year Dortmund won the league, doing the double over Bayern including a 3-1 win in Munich in February two months before Van Gaal was sacked. Van Gaal’s inability to adapt played its part in his dismissal.
Guido Schaefer, a close friend of Klopp who played with him at Mainz, is a football journalist and has interviewed him frequently. ‘I think Klopp’s tactics were more modern than Van Gaal’s,’ said Schaefer. ‘The Van Gaal football was a little bit boring, it was slow and every player had to work in an area and isn’t allowed to leave this area. They weren’t allowed to do creative things.’
A source close to Bayern during Van Gaal’s reign said of the Dutchman: ‘He brought discipline back to the club and helped us control the game with passing.
‘But by the end, the tactics were very slow and boring. Some of the players were so upset, Franck Ribery hated it. Van Gaal tried to control free spirits like Ribery and you can’t do that.’
And so to Manchester, where United’s players have privately complained all season that the coaching has not made them fit enough for the intensity of the Premier League. The sessions were not tiring enough as Van Gaal stopped to make tactical points.
Recently there has been a U-turn, with Van Gaal spending less time going through the opposition strengths and weaknesses. The manager may argue he is responding to concerns from senior pros like Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick but his mood – stern and austere compared to Klopp’s enthusiasm – has been noted.
Van Gaal still has matchwinners such as Rooney and Anthony Martial who can unsettle Liverpool’s injuryhit backline, yet he might be relieved Bastian Schweinsteiger is a major doubt. It was the German’s blunder that set Dortmund on their way to that 3-1 win in 2011.