John Giles had some harsh words to say about Louis van Gaal on Off The Ball tonight.
The former Ireland legend is not impressed by the Manchester United manager's tactics, and reckons part of Van Gaal's philosophy doesn't stand up to ridicule.
Joe put it to John that Van Gaal has said he is looking for his players to play consciously, and not on instinct.
“I think Van Gaal’s statement is a load of nonsense,” the former Leeds midfielder said. "Footballers get to the level that he has ... that if you don’t have that consciousness of what you’re doing, you wouldn’t get there in the first place.
"I don’t know what to make of Van Gaal ... sometimes he talks nonsense, and in this case he is ... if you don’t have the instinct, you’re not going to learn."
Giles is a big fan of Adnan Januzaj’s talent, but reckons the young winger is being mistreated by the Dutchman.
“Van Gaal’s best players aren’t playing in their best positions ... It’s nonsense. It’s not right. You play them in their best positions," he continued.
“Januzaj’s confidence is gone to the dogs. I saw him against Cambridge. I think he’s one of the really, really outstanding young players. I don’t know what position he was playing.
“That’s can’t be good management. That’s bad management."
All this talk of playing on instinct brought John to recollecting Bobby Charlton, who he says was difficult to play with, even though “Bobby the best player I ever played with, the best player I ever played against.
"I don’t ever remember having a discussion with Bobby about the game,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, John had high praise for Harry Redknapp, who resigned as QPR manager this week. “It just wasn’t going to happen for [Harry Redknapp] or anybody else at QPR,” he said.
He added: “He’s been a very, very successful manager ... Harry was type-cast as a wheeler-dealer , but he was a bloody good wheeler-dealer.
“He was a good judge of player, and he didn’t play them out of position. He didn’t complicate it.”
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