Van Gaal is one of the worst coaches I’ve ever worked with, says Rafael

Rafael rates his old Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal as one of the worst coaches he’s ever played under.

Van Gaal’s spell at Manchester United between 2014 and 2016 was his last as a manager, but probably one of his most controversial stints at the same time.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss yielded 54 victories, 25 draws, and 24 defeats in 103 games as he attempted to pick up the pieces at Old Trafford following David Moyes’ disastrous spell in 2013/14.

An FA Cup triumph and fourth-place Premier League in his debut season was the best he managed. Therefore, United replaced him with Jose Mourinho in the summer of 2016.

Despite his underwhelming stint in Manchester, however, Van Gaal won his fair share of plaudits. The most notable of all was from Wayne Rooney, who rates him as ‘by far the best coach I have worked with⁠—one hundred percent’.

But one ex-Red Devil not on the same page as Rooney is Rafael, who has accused Van Gaal of not liking Brazilian players in the past.

The 30-year-old fell out of favor the moment Van Gaal became manager in 2014 and was sold a year later to Lyon.

“When they said Van Gaal was the manager, a lot of friends called me,” Rafael told The Athletic.

“I could not believe it, as a lot of people told me he does not like Brazilians because of their style of play. They told me, ‘The first thing he is going to do is take you out.’ Actually, it was the second thing because on the first day, he did not speak to me.

Crying lmao Rafael went for Van Gaal😭 pic.twitter.com/LP0HvUvKXV

— Devesh (@GiveItGiggsehhh) September 28, 2020

“On the second day, he said, ‘You can leave.’ I had not even trained and he said that. I could not believe it. Ryan Giggs tried to defend me a lot. I spoke with him and I could not understand it because I had not even had a chance to show my football to Van Gaal in training.

“He just came and said, ‘You can leave.’ He did not explain why. He said, ‘You will not play this season, I am not going to use you, if you want to leave, you leave.’ I said, ‘OK.’ I still tried to battle for my place. I stayed one year with him. It was so, so hard. He is one of the worst people I have worked with.”

The full-back made just 11 appearances under Van Gaal and opened up on how the coach used to give the squad ‘sh*t’ lectures every day.

Rafael added: “Every day, after breakfast, after lunch, or if we had dinner together, he would speak to everyone for 15 minutes about training, about what has happened, about everything, about life. You know when you start to stop listening to what someone is saying, because they speak so much?

“He wanted to show he could speak, but it was every day! All the time! You need to wait for everybody to finish their food to leave, which is fine, OK – but then we watched him talk, for 15 minutes, with all due respect, about sh*t. That is the truth, man. It was sh*t.”