Louis van Gaal produces four-page dossier to prove Manchester United are not a long ball team

MANCHESTER United manager Louis van Gaal has produced a dossier of statistics to respond to claims by West Ham that they play a long-ball game.

MANCHESTER United manager Louis van Gaal has produced a dossier of statistics to respond to claims by West Ham that his team relies on a long-ball game.

After the 1-1 draw in the English Premier League on Sunday, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce described Van Gaal’s team as “long-ball United.”

But Van Gaal said Allardyce’s “interpretation” was incorrect, and the Dutch manager produced a pamphlet filled with statistics at a media conference on Tuesday to back his stance.

The pamphlet said 71.1 percent of West Ham’s long passes - over 25 meters - went forward, whereas United’s percentage was just 49.9 percent.

Diagrams showed United’s passes went sideways or diagonally, rather than forward.

“When you have nearly 60% ball possession, do you think you can do that with long balls?” Van Gaal asked. “You have to look at the data and then you see of course, we play long balls but more long balls wide than to the strikers.”

United was also criticized for sending on Marouane Fellaini in the 72nd minute and employing a more direct style of play, as it trailed 1-0.

Daley Blind equalized in stoppage time after a high ball into the box to Fellaini was not properly cleared and the midfielder struck from the edge of the area.

“We are playing ball-possession play. After 70 minutes, we don’t succeed in spite of many chances in the second half and then of course, with the quality of Fellaini, we played more forward balls,” Van Gaal explained.

“We scored because of that also, so I think (it is) a very good decision of the manager.”

After reeling off the statistics, Van Gaal rose from his chair and handed the pamphlet to the reporter who asked the question about Allardyce.

The 63-year-old asked the journalist to analyse the last three pages, which contained diagrams which contained coloured arrows pointing in the direction of both team’s passes.

“I give you this and you can see that the blue ones are the good ones because long balls are also very difficult, which is why I began with the explanation of ball possession,” the 63-year-old said.

“When you have 60 per cent ball possession you cannot play long balls. So again, they did it 71 (per cent) and we 49, and I give it to you, you can copy it and then maybe you can go to Big Sam and he will get a good interpretation.”

THE DIAGRAMS

PAGE 1

This tells us West Ham attempted 200 passes to United’s 343 in the match, while we also learn 71.1 per cent of the home side’s “long passes”- of over 25 metres – were forward compared to the visitors’ 49.9 per cent.

Louis van Gaal presents the statistics.

PAGE 2

West Ham tried 32 “long or forward passes” in the game, of which 34.4 per cent were successful.

PAGE 3

Van Gaal’s dossier.

This shows us United attempted 41 “long or forward passes” up until the 76th minute, 23 of which hit their target.

However, as Van Gaal was also keen to explain, most of those were played out wide to the wings and so do not count as long balls.

“When you have 60 per cent ball possession, do you think that you can do that with long balls?” he asked.

“Yeah, long balls, in the width, to switch the play. You have to look at the data and then you will see that we did play long balls, but long balls wide, rather than to the striker.”

PAGE 4

Page no.4.

United tried 12 “long or forward passes” after the 76th minute, when Van Gaal explained he changed his side’s tactics in search of an equaliser by trying to exploit the 6ft 4in Marouane Fellaini, with 33.3% successful.

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Originally published as Louis van Gaal produces four-page dossier to prove Manchester United are not a long ball team