The clash of ideas and philosophies between Johan Cruyff and Van Gaal was always going to end in disagreement. While Cruyff felt his way through matches, playing through intuition and organically, Man United's coach prefers a stricter and more meticulous approach, one which would strangle the liberal nature of Cruyff's ideals, despite Van Gaal taking plenty of inspiration from 'Total Voetbal'. "Van Gaal has a good vision of football, but it is not mine. He wants to gel winning teams and has a militaristic way of working with his tactics. I don't. I want individuals to think for themselves. "You judge players intuitively and with your heart. On the basis of the criteria which are now in use at Ajax I would have failed the test. My two qualities were great technique and insight, which happen to be two things you can't measure with a computer." Much of the criticism levelled at Van Gaal boils down to his militaristic and autocratic approach, with certain star players feeling under-appreciated, but following the lack of strict ideas and direction at Old Trafford under David Moyes, the Dutchman is definitely an astronomical improvement - with the track record of making big decisions regardless of player or press backlash. Which other criticisms of Van Gaal deserve to be on this list? Share your thoughts below.
