Top 113 Quotes & Sayings by Louis van Gaal - Page 2

I think you have to refresh the squad every year, and I have done it with all my clubs.

I think it's fantastic to be here in England. They live football: football is living, and living is football.

The coach is the focal point of the team, but you need to have an open mind, and so do all the players. Everyone needs to work together to achieve a common goal.

I look for players who do not just score goals but provide an attacking point, linking with other players and able to see the third man as well. Van Persie is one of the best strikers around at that.

When I speak, I am well articulated.

It's not always the fault of the manager when a player is not performing well, I can tell you.

I was a fan of Henk Groot, former striker of Ajax, who scored many goals with his head. I thought, 'I can do that also,' but I couldn't.

Of course I have ambition to become World Champions with Oranje.

Players count for nothing. The team is everything.

With Luis Enrique, I never expected he would become a coach. He was an intuition player; he didn't speak with me about tactics.

You always need the hunger to play in the first team.

I was 11 when my father died, so I didn't know my father so well.

The accommodation for the players to dress themselves, to change into their club shirts, are in most stadiums not so good.

It's difficult to beat German teams. They don't play as attractively as, for example, you have it in the English league or in the Spanish league. But to break a German team is not very easy.

My conviction is that a full professional also wants to live professionally.

I am proud people still like me. That is what is most important in life.

I watch the Premier League, the Spanish and Dutch leagues, and a little bit of the German league.

I hope that all the people who work with me remember me as a human being.

When I was coach at Ajax, in the first half of the season, the players needed time to adapt to me, to know who I am as a person and as a coach.

Success at United doesn't depend on money but about which players we bring in.

Sometimes players are very fed up with my communication, but that's what I do, and they know how I think. But they know I am very transparent.

A player needs to focus on one thing to be successful, while a coach is thinking about the whole process.

As coaches, we have to give a lot of information. Too much, I think.

I have a philosophy. I was convinced of it, and by winning trophies in four countries, I proved the philosophy worked.

Having coached Ajax, Barcelona, the Netherlands, FC Bayern, and Manchester United like I did, it is difficult for any offer to be interesting.

It's not hard at all to make the switch from United to Oranje. For a manager, it's totally different than for a player.

The basis of my confidence is that I wasn't a talented player. I was a talented human being. At school, I always had good figures. I was the captain of all my football teams. I studied physical education at the Academy, so I learned to analyse, to observe, and to take decisions.

I am used to a lot of criticism.

I speak English my way, but people understand it. You can understand everything I say, and that's the most important thing.

I criticize the media for inventing stories.

The most important thing is they have to know why we do things and when. A lot of players are playing intuitively, and I want them to think and know why they do something.

I had to follow Bobby Robson at Barcelona. He had won three titles.

A system depends on the players you have.

It was very difficult to succeed Bert van Marwijk because, two years before, he was second in the World Cup, and then he left a broken-up team behind - so that was much more difficult than you think.

Winning the FA Cup with Manchester United was my biggest achievement.

We need to learn that in the Champions League, the referees are vigilant and quick to whistle.

When you have an older group of players, they play on automatic pilot a lot of the time, but with youngsters, you have more intuition.

A World Cup is always special because it is the highest podium on which you can show your abilities as an individual player or coach, and as a team.

You have to deal with a lot of things when you are a professional football player, and that is not so easy.

I'm not the kind of coach who just goes out and buys players for the sake of it. I'm a coach who wants to - and can - improve players.

I am a coach who thinks always in the long term.

When I think I've made an error, it can cause me a sleepless night. But that only happens rarely.

Welbeck is not the standard required at Manchester United.

A player you can buy in 24 hours, believe me. That's not a problem

When I buy, I buy players for the long term, not the short term because I do respect the club a lot and also the other clubs.

If certain players do not carry out their tasks properly on the pitch then their colleagues will suffer.

Louis van Gaal has nothing more to learn.

It was always a wish for me to work in the Premier League. To work as a manager for Manchester United, the biggest club in the world, makes me very proud. I have managed in games at Old Trafford before and know what an incredible arena Old Trafford is and how passionate and knowledgeable the fans are. This club has big ambitions; I too have big ambitions. Together I'm sure we will make history.

My ambition is that I have the best players who can collaborate with each other to form the best team in the world.

I am who I am: confident, arrogant, dominant, honest, hard-working and innovative.

Running is for animals. You need a brain and a ball for football.

A system depends on the players you have. I played 4-3-3 with Ajax, 2-3-2-3 with Barcelona and a 4-4-2 with AZ. I'm flexible. The philosophy stays the same though. I don't think that you can adapt it to every possible situation. You need the right mindset, and it depends on how the players see the coach and vice versa. The coach is the focal point of the team but you need to have an open mind, and so do all the players. Everyone needs to work together to achieve a common goal.

I've signed a contract with the Dutch national team until 2006. So I can win the World Cup not once but twice.