Rafael da Silva does not have fond memories of his partnership with Louis van Gaal at Manchester United. The 31-year-old defender, now active at Istanbul Basaksehir, played at Old Trafford between 2008 and 2015 and worked under Van Gaal in his last season. Bee Talk of the Devils, a podcast by The Athletic about Manchester United, Rafael says that he sometimes has ‘nightmares’ from Van Gaal.
“The man was obsessed”, Rafael looks back on the collaboration with Van Gaal. The Brazilian recalls a game against West Ham United. On September 27, 2014, in the seventh league game under Van Gaal, Rafael prepared for Wayne Rooney’s opening goal. “I played a very good game. I’m convinced he didn’t really want to bet on me, but I think Ryan Giggs helped with that. I played well, I prepared a nice goal from Wayne Rooney.”
Rafael’s pass to Wayne Rooney can be seen from minute 1:25.
The next day, Van Gaal showed video footage of the game to the players. “‘Here, here, here!’, he kept saying. I had a good feeling about it,” Rafael says. “I knew I had played well, maybe even good enough to be man of the match. The goal was the third clip in the video. I thought, now he’s going to say something good about me. He said, ‘Here, this one. cross. Why is the ball bouncing? This is not a good cross! Why did you do that?” I looked at him and thought, what is this guy talking about? I gave an assist and he just says it was a bad pass.”
Rafael was brought in by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2008. The Scottish former trainer had different expectations than Van Gaal, says Rafael. “The difference was in the instructions during training. Van Gaal asked us why we immediately passed the ball with our first contact. Ferguson thought that was fantastic to see. It is good for the pace of the game. Van Gaal hated it He said we had to control the ball. Hit it twice, hit it three… Thinking about it still gives me nightmares.”
Rafael has never hidden his opinion about the collaboration with the new national coach of the Dutch. In an interview with The Athletic he told in September last year that Van Gaal already informed him on his second day as a trainer that he could leave. “I hadn’t even trained when he said that. I couldn’t believe it. Ryan Giggs tried to stick up for me. I talked to him about it and I couldn’t understand it as I didn’t even get a chance to to show Van Gaal at training. He just came in and said, ‘You can go.’ He didn’t explain. He said, “You won’t play this season, I’m not going to use you. If you want to leave, you can leave. I said, ‘Okay.’ “After that I tried to fight for my place. I stayed for a year and it was really hard. He is one of the worst people I have ever worked with.”