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Originally Posted by Bagor
What? I honestly think Itse that you simply look for anything to rant and rave against De Gaal for.
I'll put it simply like this. You do NOT leave someone like De Jong on the bench for a game like this even if you can only get a half of football out of him.
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Why not? Getting half a game from him is not great, when that half a game is also at 80% performance. Is it a coincidence that the best periods of play from Netherlands came after de Jong was subbed? Maybe. But Argentina controlled the play more when de Jong was on the field and Netherlands looked about the same or slightly better without him.
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And what exactly do you mean he didn't bring much?
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He was invisible offensively and while he was on the field Argentina had more control of the game than when he was not.
So let me get this straight;
Nigel de Jong was SO good that he neutralized Messi for 120 minutes even though he was on the field for 60 minutes? (I also love that part about Martins Indi, who needed to be subbed after 45 minutes for getting burned so many times he looked like a red card risk.) Sure
Look, I'm not saying that Van Gaal is a BAD coach, but he's also no genius. The Argentinian team this year is a low-scoring team. Nullifying their offense is well done, but not really something that should get a coach on this level special accolades, especially if your side gets equally nullified by the opposition.
Van Gaals basic strategy was solid, but again he had nothing up his sleeve against a team that played a defensive style, and ultimately he set up his team to fail in the shootout by managing his substitutions somewhat poorly.
That's not disastrous coaching by any stretch of the imagination, but hardly anything special either.
(Btw; not putting in Krul makes the Costa Rica substitution look rather questionable as a "brilliant tactical decision" instead of a gamble that just happened to work. Actual tactical decisions are something you would do again should a similar situation arise.)
Spoiler!
Btw, since we are again talking about Van Gaal, does he have a track record that in any way supports the idea that he's some wonder coach? No. His first stint as Netherlands national coach was a disaster, the worst performance by Netherlands in decades. He was fired from Barcelona twice in four seasons and lasted about a season and a half in Bayern. After that he had to return back to the Dutch league to repair his reputation. Which he did succesfully, good for him. This is all pretty standard stuff, coaches get fired all the time and most coaches do better in some circumstances than in others.
But does he deserve the accolades showered on him in this tournament? No, I think that's nonsense.
The coaching performances that stand out to me from this tournament are by Costa Rica, Mexico, USA, Argentina (biggest improvements from one game to another), Switzerland... And yeah, Netherlands. But only one of those guys gets constantly touted as some kind of a genius.
He's no genius. Just a good coach with a tendency for occasional unconventional coaching decisions. When they work they make him look smart, when they don't they lose games and get him fired. That part of his game largely evens out, and if he wasn't otherwise a solid (if unremarkable) tactical coach his track record would be even worse.
He's the kind of coach that can get an underdog team far, but I don't think he's best suited to coach a strong team to consistently good performances. Which in my books makes him better suited to coach smaller countries and less prominent teams than, say, Manchester United. (Although he's going into a good situation, as that organization seems mentally desperate for a superstar manager, and will be quick to label him as such and give him free reigns to do his thing. I will be however be somewhat surprised if he survives his whole three-year contract.)
Whether Netherlands is a "small" country is a matter of taste. He got this team in the range I expected them to go before the tournament (playoffs but not the final), so I think he did good but great.
I do think it should raise some eyebrows that Netherlands best game was the first game of the tournament and they were left scoreless in their last two games.