The first English spell has been a kind of flip flop for Manchester United’s Dutch manager Louis Van Gaal who is facing both appraisals as well criticisms for his work at the helm. His fans are praising his affords to bring Red Devils among the top four in the leaderboard while on the other side, there are several elites who are also blaming him and his practices and labeling them autocratic. Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt is the newest to criticize the Dutch mentor on the basis of his style of play and how badly it is affecting club soccer as a whole. He is not the only one who has said something negative about the Dutchman as West Ham manager Sam Allardyce along with former United player Paul Scholes have as well said alike about the practices being implemented by the Dutchman. Bolt, who is known for his die hard addiction for the Manchester United, lambasted ManU manager and questioned if he has confirmed his so called innovative initiatives including field spread will work under English environment. He said in his recent interview, “For me, with teams… if you are going to implement a style I think you first have to work out if a team can handle it.
“I don’t think this passing method that he has is ever going to work for Manchester United. Unless he changes all the players.”
He was questioning Gaal’s frequent changes to the field spread in almost every game United has played off late and said Dutchman is not leading an Spanish side where he is allowed to do anything with team’s philosophy, perhaps he as well called his leadership ‘miserable’ and added, “He’s trying to break down teams with this passing game, but United is not that team. If we had Giggs and Scholes still both in the middle, then it could be good. Mata is good but he’s too small. Rooney’s good but he plays a bit slow, and as a midfielder you’ve got to really move quickly. Like Hazard or some of the players for Arsenal.”
Hammers manager had also condemned Gaal “long-ball” approach after a 1-1 draw on Sunday and then Gaal replied him saying, “Because I expected this question, I have made an interpretation of the data for this game and then I have to say that it is not a good interpretation from Big Sam.
“When you have 60 percent ball possession, do you think that you can do that with long balls? Yeah, long balls, in the width, to switch the play. You have to look at the data and then you will see that we did play long balls, but long balls wide, rather than to the striker.”