Van Gaal - Horny Manager

Whitechapel said:

Alan Pardew should be a shoe in.

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I agree he's kept both Newcastle and Palace in the premier league this season.

Van Gaal - Manager of the Year

now that is comedy right there.

It should go to Koeman.

Should be Koeman unless Dyche keeps Burnley up. Don't think you can give it to LVG when they have spent a lot of money on players who have performed poorly or Mourinho when since Christmas they have been very average and done nothing in the Champions League.

Mr. Scruff said:

This post is filled with inaccuracies.

Judging your posts on us and any team except Arsenal I'd say you need to watch some games other than your beloved.

Blind has been excellent and given the prices in the current market, his versatility and his age we definitely got him for a good price.

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Sheesh, some overreaction. I didn't say Blind was a bad player or that £14m is too much. I think that is a very liberal usage of "steal". Paul Pogba signed for Juve on a bosman, became arguably the best midfielder in the world, and will likely be sold on for £70m. That's a steal. Cristiano Ronaldo for £12m was a steal. Ditto Thierry Henry for £11m. More Manchester United: Van Der Sar for £2m and Vidic for £7m. Francis Coquelin's emergence as the league's form defensive midfielder after a rocky first few years from our academy isn't a steal, more an accident, but he's performing at a higher standard than Daley Blind after spending a period with Charlton—so is £14m really a steal?

Apart from Herrera, I think Blind is the most successful of LVG's signings. He falls into the Lucas (dare I say mention the one season Arsenal fans rated Denilson!) category for me. He gets a massive reputation from his own supporters due to his consistency and the simple-but-effective playing style; however, talent-wise he's never going to emerge as a player Madrid will be bidding £40m for in two years. I've watched 10 or so league games of his this season, so those that have seen all 20 of his Premier League appearances (and all of the matches without him) will have a higher perception of his consistency, much like Lucas. None of that makes him a steal, just a good player that is important to Manchester United. Probably the same reason I overrated Arteta for his first two seasons with Arsenal.

Well then it seems we merely disagree on what the term steal constitutes.

For me paying less than 15 million in the current market for a versatile relatively young player who performs week in week out for you amounts to a bargain/steal whatever.

Henry/Pogba/Ronaldo and the like are so rare they require a whole raft of superlatives to describe the success of those deals.

Also Coquellin performing at higher level

He's also nothing like Lucas, he's a seriously good footballer , can pass long and short always chooses the right option great touch, can deal with being pressed, excellent positionally, can shoot from range and cross from just lacks a bit physicality to go along with is technique and his brain. If he was quicker and stronger he'd be perfect. As it is he struggles to make up the ground at times.

Mr. Scruff said:

Well then it seems we merely disagree on what the term steal constitutes.

For me paying less than 15 million in the current market for a versatile relatively young player who performs week in week out for you amounts to a bargain/steal whatever.

Henry/Pogba/Ronaldo and the like are so rare they require a whole raft of superlatives to describe the success of those deals.

Also Coquellin performing at higher level

He's also nothing like Lucas, he's a seriously good footballer , can pass long and short always chooses the right option great touch, can deal with being pressed, excellent positionally, can shoot from range and cross from just lacks a bit physicality to go along with is technique and his brain. If he was quicker and stronger he'd be perfect. As it is he struggles to make up the ground at times.

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1) Fair enough re: different evalutations of the term steal, I just prefer to save the superlative.
2) Coquelin is absolutely performing at a higher level. The stats support it. We've gone to Old Trafford and outperformed United with Coquelin arguably as MOTM (if I remember correctly, Blind was involved in the shambles which led to Monreal's goal). Blind has a better passing range, sure. Coquelin is more athletic, is always in position, and makes more interceptions and tackles per game than Blind. And who needs passing ranges when you play with Cazorla, Özil, and Ramsey always surrounding you. He's been our MOTM more often than not since his return and Arsenal have been the form team since then.
3) To me that sounds a lot like Lucas, who'd be significantly better if he had good athleticism.

Camborne Gills said:

Absolutely, and look how badly the Toon have done since he left. I doubt if Van Gaal could have turned it around like that

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I agree, give it to Pardew. When deciding manager of the year we should definitely ignore his performance for 50% of the season.

When Pardew left, you were tenth in the league. Since he's gone to Palace you've won two games.

Doing some quick maths (so it might be wrong) he's picked up 56 points this season which if put together would put him level with Southampton fighting for a place in the Champions League.

G.B said:

I agree, give it to Pardew. When deciding manager of the year we should definitely ignore his performance for 50% of the season.

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He kept you in the premier league or more or less has. Still don't think Newcastle will get another point all season so you better hope those below don't go on a run.

Koeman deserves it just because of this photo...

Pardew got Newcastle to midtable when he left, which is where most would expect them to finish. He's pulled Palace away from the drop zone, and he deserves credit for that, but manager of the year shouts are way over the top

Koeman. Southampton were pegged as potential relegation candidates after selling much of their team last summer. Not only have they done so well in the league, they've done so while earning a massive profit and the players they've brought in are worth well over what they paid for them.

If Pardew keeps up this Palace resurgence then he's definitely in with a shot. Personally? I think Mourinho or Koeman deserve it.

Remember the Southampton raid during the summer transfer window last year? You'd have thought they'd struggle to stay up given the quality they lost. To have challenged in the top four for so long was incredible, and unless they go tits up during these final few games, it'll be an incredibly successful season. They've done what all newly promoted sides dream of doing. They've not just secured themselves as a PL side, they're establishing themselves as a considerable force.

Mourinho speaks for himself. Chelsea have been without a shadow of the doubt the best team this season. Good signings, impressive football (save the Bradford incident).

Koeman. As most have said, Southampton were tipped for relegation and even someone as money tight as me stuck £5 on them to get relegated just before Pochettino left and thought the odds were amazing at 25/1, a few weeks after just before the season began they were 7/1. Koeman didn't have time to wait around for his new players to gel as well as for himself to settle into the Premier League as it can take so many to do. They've been fighting for a top 4 finish for the majority of the season although the last couple of months haven't been great.

All things considered, I think he deserves it.

Mourinho has done well, but Chelsea are pretty much where they're expected to be, and it's helped Chelsea's cause that all the other big guns have totally misfired and are inconsistent.

Dyche will do very well to keep Burnley up if he manages that, but there are many teams that have come up and stayed up, and despite Burnley having arguably the worst squad in the league, it's not a huge surprise if they do stay up. There are a lot of sides in this league that are so poor that have the potential to go down.

I think Pardew should be Koeman's biggest threat after the points he's collated at Newcastle and Palace combined. I think he's picked up as many (or nearly as many) as Southampton have. Given the way that Palace done under Warnock and Newcastle under Carver, I think Pardew deserves credit as neither club will go down. He might have his critics at Newcastle, especially with a poor record against Sunderland, but he made a massive turnaround and went on an amazing run of form after an iffy start to pretty much all but secure Premier League safety early on in the season.

ArmchairDieHard said:

When Pardew left, you were tenth in the league. Since he's gone to Palace you've won two games.

Doing some quick maths (so it might be wrong) he's picked up 56 points this season which if put together would put him level with Southampton fighting for a place in the Champions League.

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So he deserves manager of the year cos he did better than a temporary solution who has never managed and only has 13 players available to him? Is that the argument in his favour?

This shout is based almost purely on his short time at Palace. You don't give someone manager of the year off the back of a few months. It's quite clearly Koeman... like, there's no real argument to be had here. Southamptons squad was ripped apart in the summer, yet he's fixed it, improved it (somehow) and has had them in the top 6 all season.

I don't think it's cut and dry by any means. Granted Koeman has had a fantastic season, but so has Alan Pardew. Both of whom have had to deal with some difficult situations this season.

I do. He's the only stand out candidate imo, he's done an incredible job at Southampton this year.

Pardew didnt win for 7 straight games with us early on this season, before narrowly winning 1-0 against Leicester at home. Then he went on another run of 1 win in 9. And another where we conceded 12 goals in 4 games and lost them all (including the derby... again). That is not the form of the manager of the year, nor a fantastic season by any clubs/managers standards, whichever way you want to dress it up. I'd lean more towards 'fucking awful' personally. I'm beginning to think some of you haven't even looked at his record at Newcastle this season. Spoiler alert: It's not very good.

Aside from Winding the Newcastle fans up with how much worse they are since they got rid of Pardew It's got to be Koeman hasn't it?

Pardew is the daddy.

Koeman for me, made some very good unknown signings and got Saints challenging for europe, Pardew would be a close second due to work he has done at both Newcastle and Palace.

Jose. Although I like Koeman's work this ssn. I wouldn't mind if they gave it to him either

Another record breaking performance by Van Gaal's team. 3 loss in a row, 70% 66% 80% possession, 0 goals scored. Van Gaal certainly deserves the manager of the year award.

Mr. Scruff said:

Are we seriously comparing LVG and Wenger solely on money spent? Arsenal had perfect stability going into the season coming off an FA cup win, having the same manager they'd had since the dawn of time and added a few players to the squad one who is absolutely world class without losing much. Van Gaal on the other hand was inheriting a team at rock bottom, recovering from our greatest manager ever being replaced by a clown, had a huge turnover in personnel and was attempting to completely overhaul the system bringing about a complicated style of play that requires lots of time to get right.

I don't think Van Gaal is the manager of the year but if we finish only a point behind Arsenal it will be because either LVG over achieved or Wenger under achieved.

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If we win at OT, quite plausible, it could end up being a 10 point gap or more. Plus Arsenal are favourites to win a 2nd consecutive cup final after deservedly beating LVG at OT.

AdrianDurham said:

Another record breaking performance by Van Gaal's team. 3 loss in a row, 70% 66% 80% possession, 0 goals scored. Van Gaal certainly deserves the manager of the year award.

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Well if he won it now after three defeats that certainly would be a "heads gone"

LVG is proving to be somewhat of a fraud. He stumbled across a winning formula and is stubbornly sticking with it now that it's been swiftly found out. He's not good enough for United, I would be happy to see him go at the end of the year.

We've just taken our foot of the pedal with 4th all but guaranteed. He'll spend big money again in the summer, probably on a centre back, right back, centre mid and a winger and we'll push on next season possibly challenging for the title.

Relax!

I'm calm. I've maintained LVG hasn't shown any progress at United all season. The past three weeks prove it.

7th to 4th (assuming that's where we finish). No European football to Champions League football. That's enough progress for his first season, even if it has been far from perfect.

It's barely enough and if we're honest we might be just clinging on to fourth.

I understand why people want to give him time. I can't see where we're improving enough to be title contenders next season. I think it'd be a smart gamble to get rid of him and pick up one of a few better managers that'll be on offer this summer.