Louis van Gaal Out; Front Office Does Not Care for Kraft

By: phil | April 11th, 2011

   

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In news we’ve been waiting to report for a while, Louis van Gaal has been relieved of his duties as FC Bayern Munich’s manager, effective immediately.  The experienced, low-key assistant Andries Jonker takes over for the last 5 matches, at which point Jupp Heynckes will arrive permanently.

The last month has been a textbook case of why you never fire a guy “effective after this year is over.”  If the team is under-performing, and the poor performance is the result of bad coaching, how is the situation going to get better by firing the manager but allowing him to coach the last 3 months of the season?  This is especially true when the problem seems to result from a lack of communication with the players, and the resultant problems with motivation and respect.  If the club is tired of hearing the manager and starting to tune out everything he says, the problem can only get worse (likely much worse) when they know he’s going to be gone at the end of the year.

For the last few weeks, the team has pretty much been on auto-pilot, with Lahm and Schweinsteiger providing whatever leadership there is.  It’s unclear what Jonker is going to do tactically, but even removing van Gaal and most of his assistants has to be a major plus in the dressing room. 

The part of the story that surprised me a little was Uli’s statement that “It all started getting messy when he (Van Gaal) dropped Hans-Jorg Butt and replaced him with Thomas Kraft.”  While I’m on record as saying that replacing Kraft is the proper move, I don’t think our entire bad season can be blamed on him.  I distinctly remember blowing several matches against inferior competition with Hans-J in goal early this season.  After allowing a soft goal through a bad mistake on Saturday, Kraft makes an easy scape-goat, but keep in mind he has made some very good saves this year, including stuffing penalty shots against Wolfsburg and Freiburg that have kept us half-way alive in the CL hunt. 

Anyway, it will be interesting to see whether Jonker feel like he has to replace Kraft for the stretch run.  Obviously the goal is to get Neuer, and several of my readers assure me that’s as good as done.  But if we miss CL qualification and Neuer decides to stay with Schalke, it appears we’ll be looking elsewhere anyway.  Should be an interesting summer.

In other news, Robben has been banned for the next two games.  As we discussed, this weekend’s match vs. Leverkusen is absolutely vital, so I guess we’ll see what Altintop can bring to the table.  Check back in tomorrow for a look ahead and some updated CL qualification math.  Thanks for reading.

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Comments  

• Seth_VanH |  April 11th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

  
  
  

  There should be a wikipedia article about “How NOT to fire an active coach” with the FCB Board on the front page. The board just put our future coach in an awful situation. The management change should not have been announced until after the Leverkeusen match. I hope Kraft doesn't get the short end of this coaching stick. It was unfortunate that the goal had to happen, but he has saved our butts in a couple of big matches. This has just been an awful situation that I feel will not be over until the CL spot is qualified for and the season is over.

  

• Roger |  April 11th, 2011 at 4:51 pm

  
  
  

  I believe Uli's exact words were “it all went to shit”.
  Classic Uli.

  

• Phil |  April 11th, 2011 at 4:57 pm

  
  
  

  Hahaha. Excellent! The ESPN article I linked says “it all started to get messy” but it doesn't surprise me that ESPN would 'sanitize' his quote when they translated to English.

  

• quaazi |  April 11th, 2011 at 5:37 pm

  
  
  

  “he has saved our butts”

  Haa!

  

• Tomas |  April 12th, 2011 at 6:05 pm

  
  
  

  Good article Phil! I love Uli but sometimes…
  Like you said even though Kraft bumbled the shit out of the soft goal I wont even come close to using him as our scapegoat. For me the idea of switching Butt with Kraft was a bit of a coin toss. Neither of them really possess the ability and skills to cope with our defense as it is. Those skills are of Neuer quality. That said Kraft did a decent job especially under the pressure he must have felt going from riding the pine to playing leauge, Pokal and CL.
  IMO most of our failures, other than our offense not being able to score when needed on a constant basis, was our midfield including our CBs. We lost the battle there too much and went down the table because of it, including getting knocked out of CL.
  I wasnt too amazed that the board kept LvG on even though I wouldnt have. Thats like telling an employeed that they are fired… at the end of the month. Lets see how much destruction this employee can do?! That was definitely not a smart move!
  This Saturdays match will be tough to watch I think. Jupp having to prove extra hard that he isnt throwing the match so his future squad can make the CL spot. Him proving to the B04 club and fans he is loyal until his last day. I dont know who will have it worse on Saturday, Jupp, the Bayern players or us the supporters. Its going to be a tough enough battle without all the baggage tied to it. Im thinking this might end up another draw. Im just hoping that whatever happens Hannover doesnt get a point at all!

  

• Roberto |  April 12th, 2011 at 8:41 pm

  
  
  

  aparently mancheste is about to announced they signed de Gea for next season. I think that gets Neuer closer to Bayern, he nows its time to play in a big club, and just bayern and arsenal are on the race now. Of course if Bayern cant get 3 place by the end of the season…im not that sure.

  

• hvorfor |  April 13th, 2011 at 1:22 am

  
  
  

  I didn't take that as Uli talking down Kraft's ability, after all he did grew up in the Bayern youth system and we all know how protective Hoeness is of his Bayern players. However, I think it was more van Gaal's adamant usage of Kraft at all times as a big “fuck you” to the board for wanting Neuer was really where it all went to shit. Then again, the fact that LvG didn't believe in player rotation was a big problem anyway.

  While this whole Neuer thing is a “done deal” to most people, they're still in the CL and if luck is on their side and slips away from ours I am leaning more towards doubting Neuer's appearance in a Bayern Keeper uniform.

  

• Samrin |  April 13th, 2011 at 7:04 am

  
  
  

  For one thing, Schalke, despite having Metzelder in there can do desperate defending and overall defending much better than Bayern can…Neuer has a better defence in front of him thatn Jorg-Butt/Kraft.

  

• Tomas |  April 13th, 2011 at 2:18 pm

  
  
  

  I just dont see Schalke having a better defense than we do. I mean both are dismal but IMO Schalkes is worse. That said, Schalkes defense actually looks much better playing CL matches but as far as Bundesliga matches they stink.

  

• Samrin |  April 13th, 2011 at 4:12 pm

  
  
  

  I have mostly watched them in CL..so I gave I made my observation based on that…but even in the buLi, whether by luck or not, they don't usually concede 2 or 3….

  

• Imicus |  April 13th, 2011 at 4:35 pm

  
  
  

  Come on man, somebody thinks that a top class player looks only at the next season to consider a movement to Bayern? first of all, Schalke would need a miracle to get to the final, and I do not think so, all their luck came together in San Siro, and they will not play next (and who knows the following) CL. In the years to come the future is clearly much better at Bayern, in a financial and sport way, for Neuer. He knows that, even in the worst scenario with bayern out of next Cl-disaster, next years he will be playing at he highest level, and at Schalke he has no chance for it.

  

• Tomas |  April 13th, 2011 at 6:50 pm

  
  
  

  Im not saying they have the worst defense in Bundesliga but to me anyway, they are worse than us… but again not my much. IMO our defensive players are more talented than Schalkes and I would say by a good portion but where Schalkes defense lacks talent, compared to us, we are the more lazy ones who seem to consistantly let off the gas at the 70' much like Neverkusen but to more of an extent. I know lvg had some part in this as far as switching players around due to experiementation and also due to injuries and lack of back-ups (again his fault) HOWEVER a good portion of the blame is on the players as well due to either laziness or lack of concentration. I will never forget lvg's comment about great clubs having 2 good players for every position yet never picking up the defensive players we needed during transfer windows because he wanted to play with a skeleton crew. A lot of people keep saying he is a great coach but with that thinking, especially when you play on 3 fronts, is completely illogical. But that debate has been beaten to death already.
  But hopefully Schalke can finish off Inter the way we couldnt and help Bundesliga in the CL.

  

• Samrin |  April 14th, 2011 at 6:59 am

  
  
  

  Hi Tomas…I get what you are saying…our defenders are individually better but in Schalke, the whole teams defends in the CL together, even Raul…making it very difficult for opponents to break them down.

  I am glad Schalke finally got rid of Inter and I hope to see them get past United….

  

• Jeppe H |  April 14th, 2011 at 4:03 pm

  
  
  

  Uli is wrong in blaming Kraft, sure you can blame him for the Nurnberg draw, but since January he's done a great job. But in Uli we trust, he nows what he's doing. And if Kraft is leaving, why playing him? Butt isn't a better or worse keeper, just more experienced.