Van Gaal: I am not a schoolteacher!

As found by Goose:

Louis van Gaal wants to find the complete human being in the football player. And he remains a coach who wants to listen to his own heart. “They always think I’m a school teacher, but I’m definitely not!”.

Is Louis perfectly happy? “Well, we lead the tables, I am happily married, my kids and grandchildren are healthy so… My wife wants to spend more time in Portugal where we have a second home, but I told her: not yet! Sleeping in and playing golf… That will have to wait…”

The Dutch players think he is the best coach alive. He is definitely happy with that. Also ex-players can’t say enough about him. Bogarde calls him the best and Patrick Kluivert recently named a star after Van Gaal, as a wedding gift.

And in AZ’s restaurant there is something that’s called The Louis van Gaal Dish… Nice… Mashed potatoes, andives, slow cooked skirt steak and bacon bits with a garlic gravy. Did you actually design this menu? It’s a joke, but we should have known better… “They first made it with some other vegetable. Something I didn’t like. If it’s named after me, I want my fave vegetable in there…”

It’s typical Van Gaal. He can determine someone character by watching him train and his own personality can be derived from his own dish… Typical Dutch, with a bit of burgundy thrown in for good measure. “Yeah, I can see myself as a Burgundy type… We had it well when I grew up… I don’t think I’m the type that’s capable of drinking cheap and shabby wine…”

Some call him conservative and traditional, but as a coach he’s also been revolutionary. Like his ideas about abolishing off-side. “It’s a monstrosity, really. We as coaches can’t do anything with it and refs and linesmen can’t get it right anymore. The big honchos don’t want to deploy electronics to keep it under control, so I say…simply cancel the rule.”

“I’m not romantic in that way. If off side has served it’s purpose, get rid of it. I also said the Champions League is a commercial brainchild… Even if I did win in the second season, I could still see it wasn’t designed for the sports, it was designed for money…”

Louis van Gaal, tactical genius, teambuilder, passionate and successful. Most fans in Holland can see AZ win the title. AZ is the favorite this season, but of course, Professor Van Gaal doesn’t agree.

“Ajax has more individual skills, and that’s logical… they have more money to spend. We talked with Huntelaar before Ajax got him. Same with Makaay. Hunter went for Ajax, Makaay for Feyenoord. Alves also decided to follow the money. And that’s the difference. And that’s why it would be a tremendous result if we’d win the title.”

In 1999, Van Gaal won his last title, in Barcelona. But the man himself thinks that is a bad joke. “I went on to coach Oranje and after that I was a manager at Ajax. You don’t win titles in that role…”

“I worked with top class players at Oranje, but it felt like I really needed to be the school teacher. And I try not to be that. I try to give players freedom and their own responsibilities. But if you can’t handle that, I will need to be that teacher. But I don’t want to. That’s why I left as a teacher (Van Gaal was a school teacher before focusing on his coaching career).”

But I have also worked with super players who do have the ability to carry the responsibility. Players like Cocu, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol… And that’s why Barca does so well this season. The core is made up of players who are able to be critical on themselves. These lads all started under me. I love working with players like them, I can’t stand the big name players who only excel when the tv broadcasters are around or when the sun shines…”

The ultimate Van Gaal players is Andres Iniesta, Van Gaal says. “He sees the game so well, he can play on different positions… Xavi has that too, but Xavi is more static. Iniesta has that spunk in his game. Xavi is more like I was. Technically perfect. Tactically strong, but too slow… Like myself. Iniesta is the player I wanted to be, but wasn’t…”

Louis van Gaal has the ambition to work as a team manager again and to lead a European top club again. But he can’t see himself work as the typical English team manager, at a distance.
“No, I need day to day contact with the lads. It keeps me young too, you know. I want people around me, I need to communicate. I can be alone, for a day, but the next day I start to become jittery and the third day I go crazy…”

After 2010 anything goes. England, Spain, Germany… “I get two or three calls per month. Reasonable clubs too, you know. Sometimes they call me four times in a row… I am sorry Bayern Munich always came at the wrong time for me. That’s a club I’d like to work, and I could have I suppose…”

But, today AZ is giving Van Gaal enough satisfaction. “The level we sometimes reach at training reminds me of Ajax and Barca. The interchange between players and coaches is good and we have confidence this season. That’s important. Last season, we were mostly the better team but we couldn’t score. The pressure starts and you start to make mistakes, which adds to the pressure, etc etc. Now, we don’t have trouble scoring and everyone relaxes into the game. We only conceded 11 goals, which has everything to do with our ability to score up front. But, with all that said, what really counts is a title… The rest will be forgotten if we don’t get a prize.”

Van Gaal always wanted to study psychology and he still may… “I am interested in the total human being. I don’t think passing the ball from player A to B is what it’s about. That’s the easy part. To form a good team, you need to gel a group of individuals together. Last year, we lacked a leader on the pitch. You need to approach a team sports as a collection of clogs that you then gel together into a football machine…No machine…that’s not a good word…you need heart and soul too…
But you need to know what drives people, can they play in service, who do I approach and motivate this kid… I made profile descriptions of all my players and we now have a shared language I can use with my coaching staff… See, the world is getting complicated. We live in the zap culture…One push on a button and you know everything, and kids start doing that when they’re 12 years old. I need to work with those circumstances and I can’t do it alone, I need specialists in many fields to guide these players….

“I know that getting Schaars and Martens back from injury would make a difference. But the big surprises for me were Moisander and his development and El Hamdaoui’s performance. We made El Hamdaoui important here. We offer him more freedom but I also spend time with him to keep him grounded. The next phase in his career will be tough. He needs to stay in his key. He does well, he hasn’t changed towards his team mates or me or towards the club. But IU have seen the changes in other players. Normal guys, who suddenly think the sun shine out of their asses. And they will always deny it, but that’s because they don’t see things in perspective anymore. I don’t need to give examples, do I?”

Typical for Van Gaal is that Kees Luijckx will get another chance, with the several injured players in the group. Luijckx was on his way out (to NEC) and some media said AZ would sign Ooijer. “No, Luijckx has waited so long for his chance. If I would sign Ooijer, Kees would have to go. We developed him here, we took him back in, now I will play him too. He deserves that. I can’t recant, I wouldn’t sleep at night, you know?”

“And it does happen… I once told a player: you don’t improve here, I can’t use you anymore. It’s over… That night, I couldn’t sleep and I knew I was wrong. I went to him the next day, and said: listen, I couldn’t sleep. I was wrong. You will keep your spot in the team…

Van Gaal, always the perfectionist. The builder and the man of the details. Louis’ dessert in his menu is homemade custard with fresh mandarin, whipped cream and crispy chocolate.

“Actually, chocolate custard is even better, but the mandarin parts will slip into the chocolate and that doesn’t taste too good. So we decided to compromise…”