Louis van Gaal’s irritation about Manchester United’s “long-ball United” tag manifested itself in an unorthodox press conference yesterday, in which he armed himself with a four-page pamphlet of statistics aimed at dismantling Sam Allardyce’s allegation and then asked his audience to deliver it to the West Ham manager. “Copy it and go to Big Sam,” the indignant Old Trafford manager said.
Twice as many
Van Gaal’s dossier of A4 sheets shows his team played almost twice as many long balls as West Ham – 83 against 45 – during the 1-1 draw at Upton Park and that 24.2 per cent of their passes were of that manner, compared to 22.5 per cent for their opponents.
However, the United manager argued Allardyce had unfairly misrepresented the statistics and pointed out 41 of United’s long passes were actually hit sideways rather than to their attackers. In that case, his argument was that West Ham played a considerably higher percentage of long balls forward – 71.1 per cent of their passes compared with United’s 49.9 per cent.
Van Gaal took exception when journalists pressed him on whether he had abandoned United’s traditions to accommodate Fellaini as a target man. “Because of Big Sam, you are talking in behind,” he said.
Choreographed response
It was a robust and choreographed response from Van Gaal, though its unusual nature did bring back memories of when
Rafael Benitez
produced the “facts” in his Liverpool days concerning Sir Alex Ferguson and refereeing decisions.
Van Gaal’s relationship with Allardyce has not deteriorated to that point but it was clear he was distinctly unimpressed to find a manager renowned for long-ball tactics pointing out that West Ham “couldn’t cope with long-ball United – it was thump it forward and see what you get”.
“Because I expected this question, I have made an interpretation of the data and I have to say that it is not a good interpretation from Big Sam. It is not so difficult to read. 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 strikers,” Van Gaal said.
“We were playing ball-possession and after 70 minutes we did not succeed, in spite of many chances in the second half, so I changed my playing style. Then, of course, with the quality of Fellaini we played more forward balls and scored from that, so I think it was a very good decision of the manager.
“But when you see, overall, the long ball [statistics] West Ham have played 71 per cent of their long balls to the forwards and we [played] 49 per cent. So I will give you this data and you can see that the blue ones are the good ones. Again, they did 71 and we did 49 ... you can copy it and you can go to Big Sam and he will get a good interpretation.”
The statistics after Sunday’s game showed that in the five major European leagues only Burnley and Metz had played more long balls this season than Van Gaal’s team.
It was a robust performance from the Dutchman, culminating in him insisting that he was satisfied with their playing style and defending his decision to use Wayne Rooney in midfield. “I think we have played attractive games and less attractive games, with every club, so there’s no discussion.”
Van Gaal, meanwhile, has denied an FA charge of misconduct following comments made after United’s goalless draw at Cambridge last month and has requested a personal hearing. Guardian Service
