Louis Van Gaal has had a successful start on his return to the Netherlands, but any success does not justify his claims that he should have had more time at United.
Louis Van Gaal has signalled his return to management with a bang after his Netherlands side have scored 11 goals in only three matches since his return.
The manager had temporarily retired from football after his two-season spell with Manchester United, where he had secured a FA Cup.
United had won the game in extra time, after a great goal by Jesse Lingard, but two days later the manager and his backroom had been sacked, to be replaced by Jose Mourinho, who then went on to be replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Much has been said about the potential third season of Louis Van Gaal. He had finally won a trophy with the club and had spent his time at the club trying to implement his philosophy.
And looking at how he had the Netherlands team playing in the 2014 World Cup and in the handful of games he has managed now, on paper it seems that if he was given more time he may have implemented a similar style of attacking intent at United.
But during his time with the club, fans had to experience some of the worst football I have ever had the displeasure to watch in my life.
Much can be said about the 5-3-2 that was Van Gaal’s chosen formation at United, it can be deployed to ensure defensive stability which allows the ability to quickly transition into counter-attacks.
Van Gaal has recently come out in a press conference and praised Thomas Tuchel for how he has implemented it at Chelsea during his short time there.
He said in his press conference after a journalist said that the 5-3-2 was defensive; “You have zero knowledge about football. You are a journalist who wants to share his vision, but you don't have a vision.
“With 532 you can attack very well. And hats off for Tuchel for showing it.”
Looking at the statistics however, this is not completely true. Across his first 22 games with the club he has only scored 31 goals, averaging 1.41 goals a game.
He has only scored more than one goal in just 10 of those fixtures and kept a clean sheet in 13 of them.
This is more of an emphasis on the formation being used for defensive stability. There are some factors to explain why Tuchel’s side has not scored more.
They have only just signed a true focal point to their attack this season in Romelu Lukaku and last season Timo Werner had an xG of 13.43 but only managed six goals in the Premier League, which is a very poor return.
However, even if Tuchel’s side was scoring a hatful of goals, it still goes against the evidence that led to Van Gaal’s sacking at the end of 2016.
The club had invested heavily in improving his squad, bringing the likes of Anthony Martial, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Memphis Depay and Ander Herrera into the club.
But despite this, the results were not forthcoming.