Former Manchester United star and current Wales manager Ryan Giggs has revealed that he learned more from former manager Louis van Gaal than Sir Alex Ferguson.
Things didn’t work out for Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and he was sacked after winning the FA Cup. Giggs revealed that Van Gaal’s tenure helped him in his coaching career. Giggs was even the interim manager of United when David Moyes was sacked.
“Obviously I had different international managers, but that’s only obviously a short space of time. That’s why I talk about Louis (van Gaal), regarding my coaching, because I’m actually two years in the meetings, [taking] responsibility, and I talk so fondly of him because that was really my first coaching role. Whereas when you’re playing, you don’t know the preparation,” Giggs told The Official Manchester United Podcast.
“You don’t know what the manager’s seen on the videos. Players get seven or eight minutes of watching the opposition, but the coaching staff watch hours and hours.
“So that is completely different, it’s completely different, even though you’ve worked under a manager for so long. It was more sort of the man-management and the different things that Sir Alex would do that I’ve picked up on, whereas with Louis obviously I’ve seen first-hand different systems, why you play the different systems, the reasons for this and the reasons for that, It was a really good experience.”
Van Gaal was criticised for poor management and tactics during his tenure at United. But United players who played under him have always praised the Dutchman.
Giggs was the assistant manager under Van Gaal during his tenure at Old Trafford. Despite a poor spell, Van Gaal admitted last month that United were the best accomplishment of his career despite winning the majority of trophies with Ajax.
