"I want to make history here," a confident Louis van Gaal said on June 1, his first day as manager of Bayern Munich. "The club is like me: self-confident, dominant, arrogant, diligent, innovative, but also warm and familiar," the Dutch coach said.
His coming to Munich was to bring a new concept of football to the legendary German club, which failed to be successful under Jürgen Klinsmann last season. Van Gaal was seen as the key to renewed European success. The 58-year-old made small club AZ Alkmaar the Dutch national champion last season; he won Ajax its last Champions League title in 1995 and in between twice ran FC Barcelona – the club Bayern Munich sees as an example.
But less than four months later, the Dutchman is under great pressure after disappointing play, poor results and disagreements with the team's stars. As with every coach who is in a corner, the local papers are pumping up the pressure on him.
Is there still faith in the trainer?
On Saturday November 21st one Bayern Munich fan, who identified himself as Mario, made his feelings about the trainer very clear. "You can take Van Gaal back to the Netherlands with you," he said on the day before Bayern München would play Bayer Leverkusen at home.
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The next day, the morning before frontrunner Leverkusen came to Munich, German tabloid Bild wrote: "Herr Van Gaal, ist das Ihr Endspiel?" (Mr. Van Gaal, is this your endgame?). When the coach came out on the pitch to watch his team warm up, photographers flocked around him. When the line-up was announced, fans screamed the last names of their favourite players, but when the speaker said "Our team is led today by our 'chef' Louis..." he was met only by loud whistles.
Munich started with constrained play but, seemingly out of nowhere, striker Mario Gomez scored the opening goal just 8 minutes into the game. Van Gaal lept up from the bench in enthusiasm, but he was crushed when Leverkusen equalised 6 minutes later. He appeared shaken at the press conference afterwards. When asked about his future, he refrained from answering. "It is not my decision to make and you should know that." Club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was clearly dissatisfied, but said he had not lost faith in the trainer.
Players divided on their coach
General manager Uli Hoeness recently said the coach was given until Christmas to prove his capacities, and the papers were unequivocal in their conclusion on Monday morning: Van Gaal is in trouble. He held a long meeting with his players that morning, followed by a practice led by his assistant. As the players ran around the pitch, Bild reporter Jörg Althoff listed the players who support and those who oppose the coach. "Ribéry contra, Toni contra, Gomez contra, Schweinsteiger pro and Van Bommel pro. Hoeness and Rummenigge? They have both had it with Van Gaal," he stated. "What do you think, is Guus Hiddink willing to come to Bayern?”
Dutch football trainers are popular around the world, but Guus Hiddink is the most popular of all, despite the fact that he failed to qualify the Russian national team for the World Cup in South Africa next year.
After lunch that Monday, Dutch Bayern captain Mark van Bommel made himself available to talk to the press. "Is our trainer frustrated? Yes, of course he is. We all are as long as we're not winning," he said.
Speculation about his possible successors
Dozens of cameras were running as Van Gaal gave his last press conference before the Champions League match against Maccabi Haifa on Wednesday. He was asked to counter critical remarks player Luca Toni made about him in the Italian press, to elaborate on the fact Franck Ribéry's wife has H1N1 flu, and to talk about his own performance. "When a club underperforms the criticism quickly becomes more personal and stronger," was all he wanted to get into. But as he got up to leave after ten minutes, the coach lost his guard: "Viel Spass morgen beim Spiel!”, he yelled at the German reporters.
The next day, Bild reported Van Gaal had removed Toni from the team. The paper also speculated about the coach's possible successors, namely Guus Hiddink and German Thomas Schaaf. That evening, Bayern once again proved to be a team that doesn't believe in itself. It had three chances against the Israeli team before half time, but strikers Gomez en Olic failed to score and the audience grumbled. But when the screen in the stadium showed Bordeaux led against Juventus, who compete in the same group, hope returned.
Some of his bravado back
As Olic scored from a rebound in the 62th minute, board members, trainers, players and fans erupted in celebration. Bordeaux beat the Italians 2-0 and relief was enormous in Munich. The club is still alive in the Champions League, although it will have to beat Juventus in Turin in two weeks to advance to the next round.
The first victory in five matches gave Van Gaal some of his bravado back. "I think the players gave everything today. They executed it excellently," the coach exaggerated. "We just should have scored more. That remains a problem for us. But we still have everything into our own hands."
Captain Van Bommel was one of the last to leave the stadium that night. "As captain it is important I hold the team together. I disapprove of what Toni did and I have told him so a couple of times, but he won't listen. Is he alone in his criticism of Van Gaal? I think so."
The press decided to give the coach a grace period. On Thursday they said the game in Turin will be his final exam. "Van Gaal dreams of a miracle," wrote Bild.
