Louis Van Gaal knows a thing or two about coaching and handling a locker room. The former Netherlands head coach managed Ajax, Barcelona, AZ, Bayern Munich, and Manchester United at the club level. Recently the 71-year-old manager coached the Dutch to the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
In total Van Gaal has won 20 championships as a manager and 4 when he coached Barcelona. Van Gaal also was the manager to give Xavi his first crack at first team soccer, Xavi‘s debut in La Liga came against Valencia on 3 October 1998 in a 3–1 victory for Barcelona.
After more than 700 games as a Barcelona player the former midfielder became the coach of Barcelona in 2021 but has yet to win a championship with the Spanish giants. In a conference that aired on Movistar Plus both shared their experiences coaching Barcelona and Van Gaal offered his former pupil some advice.
Louis Van Gaal and Xavi chat
The biggest advice Louis Van Gaal gave Xavi was a simple one, “Be yourself” when managing one of the biggest teams on the planet. Xavi also admitted to his former coach there is a lot of pressure coaching the club, “I’m stressed Louis, it’s normal, it’s Barcelona. You suffer a lot, 24 hours at home thinking about how to help the team and the players, especially on a mental level because when the results are not good, they sink”.
Xavi (Getty Images)
Van Gaal answered, “You have to be yourself, always be the same person. That’s the advice I give you because if you change your personality, it’s over.” In his three seasons at the club Van Gaal was criticized for bringing in a lot of players from the Netherlands and not playing players from the youth ranks. Van Gaal also had a huge rift with Ivan De la Peña who was considered one of the best passers of the ball in the world at the time.
Van Gaal also had major issues with star signing Juan Roman Riquelme who would ignore the coach’s tactical instructions of playing on the wing, as the Argentine would cut into the middle and therefore was more effective. Riquelme would admit that no matter if he’d score goals or provide assists Van Gaal took him out of the lineup for being “irresponsible”.
