WE COULD WIN LEAGUE
It’s been a horror start but Van Gaal is still defiant
ALTHOUGH he seemed to have forgotten all about it yesterday, Louis van Gaal has been here before. It was in May 1992 that the Dutchmanl took his young Ajax team to Turf Moor for a post-season friendly to mark Burnley’s success in winning the English Fourth Division.
For the Lancastrians it was an afternoon of celebration. For Van Gaal, though, it was just another step on the way to building his great Ajax team.
The Amsterdam club had just won the UEFA Cup — Van Gaal’s first trophy at the club — but it was to be another two years before he guided them to the Dutch championship and three before they lifted the European Cup.
As Van Gaal likes to say so much, it was the start of a process and the similarities with his current situation at Manchester United are quite clear.
Van Gaal had to be prompted to remember the game but then said: ‘It’s a long time ago but yes, I know about that game as I was there. We won. I remember that. More importantly, though, it was also a step in the process for me with Ajax.
‘That is what I talk about here. We won the UEFA Cup in the first year but had to wait for other things. Then we won the domestic cup, another step in the process.
‘This game at Burnley will be difficult for us. It’s not a big stadium or a big pitch so it will be a fantastic atmosphere and I believe the supporters shall stimulate the players of Burnley.
‘It’s also a derby, they will play with a lot of passion, a lot of long balls. You have to fight against it.
‘It will be a very difficult game but we have to show we can play football, that we can pass the ball in spite of the pressure of Burnley.’
Van Gaal was in bullish mood despite the fact that his squad will arrive at Turf Moor today missing 10 players through injury and new defender Marcos Rojo because of work permit issues. The Dutch coach’s message remains the same. If he is given time and shown patience then he will bring success to United. Yesterday he even challenged the media to get behind him.
‘We can be the champions still in England now, in my first year,’ said Van Gaal. ‘Maybe you shall laugh, but also in my former clubs I have started like this, so for me it’s not big news or different, because I have already said that.
‘But you have to survive as a trainer- coach, as a manager. You have to survive, because, nowadays, the fans are asking for results and this is the question: Can I receive enough time to do all the steps we have to do?
‘ Maybe you ( the media) can support Louis van Gaal. Do you believe in him? Yes? OK. What a fantastic end, a fantastic end.’
There is, of course, no reason for Van Gaal to feel under undue pressure. Much has conspired against him since the season started.
Nevertheless, he does need a result today after taking only a point from Premier League games against Swansea and Sunderland and losing 4-0 in the Capital One Cup to MK Dons.
New signing Angel di Maria will go straight into United’s team today and may find himself alongside players such as Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley, even though both know they are not wanted by the new manager.
Asked about this, Van Gaal said: ‘I am not a short-term coach. I am thinking always for the long-term. You have to take measures that are not good for the short term but better for the long term of the club.
‘That may not be good for me as a coach. But I am not here for me myself as a coach. I am here for the club.’
Details of Ajax’s game with Burnley 22 years ago (the programme is pictured right) are so hard to come by that only a Burnley fans’ website threw up the attendance (just over 10,000) and the scoreline (1-0 to Ajax) while it is unlikely that Van Gaal himself will remember much about the goalscorer that day, one Ignacio Tuhnretus.
Certainly today’s game will be remembered a little longer and the United manager can only hope for a similar result.
‘ I am confident about things here,’ he stressed. ‘Because everywhere I have been before I have showed it. That’s why. Not because of other things.
‘I don’t believe my philosophy won’t work at Manchester United. I believe that at the end of the process I think everybody will be happy that I was here. You too, I hope…’