Dutch dilemma

Many German soccer observers were looking to Wednesday night's Champions League clash between Bayern Munich and Juventus as an indication as to which direction Louis van Gaal's embryonic career with the Bavarian giants would take in the coming weeks. While it was not a make-or-break game for Bayern, it was a match in which Munich's coach entered with increasing questions hanging over his head - which is strange, considering his record.

Van Gaal, after all, has earned a fair percentage of his international reputation in European competition. A Champions League winner as coach of Ajax in 1995, he can also boast UEFA Super Cup wins with Ajax and Barcelona as well as a UEFA Cup triumph with the Amsterdam side in the mid-90s.

These honors, on top of two La Liga titles and a Copa Del Rey while coach at Barca, suggest that pitting his sides against continental opposition should be van Gaal's forte. And settling for a point against Juventus, even at home, holds no shame - especially when the result gives his team an unbeaten start to the campaign at the top of Group A.

But the question marks over van Gaal's luxuriously coifed head have little to do with his skill at maneuvering through European competition, although his side's inability to score again may add a few. The Dutchman's overall suitability to the Bundesliga and the unique environment at Bayern Munich are the main points of discussion as van Gaal attempts to shake the Bavarian giant awake from its Bundesliga slumber.

Bayern hierarchy place hopes on taciturn authoritarian

After the aromatherapy, meditation and Buddhist gardens of predecessor Juergen Klinsmann's reign, van Gaal provides the Bayern hierarchy with a more familiar animal. Favoring workmanlike and disciplined coaches as they do, the Bayern management turned to van Gaal, with his notorious reputation for taciturn authoritarianism, and made him the club's first non-German coach in more than 10 years.

When he arrived in the close season, he was seen as the anti-Klinsi: "a Dutch rod of iron" as some quarters of the world's soccer press described him. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons Rummenigge, Hoeness and Beckenbauer hired him. Their hope was that bringing van Gaal into a situation closer to his roots would bring the best out a man who has had such great success with a number of clubs.

However looking at Bayern's less than storming start to the Bundesliga campaign, some are beginning to wonder if his alleged poor man management skills, which supposedly alienated a number of stars at Barcelona in the late 90s, are having a similar affect at Bayern.

Local, cultural sensibilities of players allegedly ignored

Despite winning back-to-back Spanish titles between 1997 and 1999, van Gaal was accused of ignoring local sensibilities and the cultures and styles of the non-Dutch players in his squad. The Spanish media portrayed him as having an aggressive personality and lacking in flexibility and empathy. Some asked whether he could get the best out of players whose backgrounds he could not fully understand.

But whatever the answer is, it may not matter at Bayern. The game and life in Germany is physically, linguistically and culturally closer to that of his home nation, and the majority of players he has to deal with share these attributes. And if he can get Bayern winning back-to-back titles with his abrasive nature, then no one among the Bayern faithful will care.

It is telling though that some players are feeling alienated already. The Gallic moodiness of Franck Ribery has yet to be fully subdued, and rather than trying to communicate with and soothe the melodramatic and flamboyant Luca Toni, the Dutchman has demoted the Italian to the amateur squad.

Record of previous successes masks barren decade

Even if he is rubbing some prima donna stars the wrong way, soccer is a team game, and surely team results mean more than the performances of a couple of players. In this respect, some argue that a man with such proven success should be given more time to get the team playing in his own image. Winning, as the old soccer adage goes, is a habit after all, and van Gaal's resume speaks for itself.

But those who quote his record are ignoring more recent facts. The titles which have contributed to his reputation in the world game were all won in the first nine years of his career. The last nine years have been relatively barren. Winning the Dutch first division title last season with AZ Alkmaar was the first title van Gaal had won since his last La Liga success with Barcelona a decade ago.

The questions certainly outnumber the answers right now but what is clear is that Louis van Gaal will have to rediscover the magic of his early years in coaching in order to score a title bigger than any he has gotten credit for in recent years.

Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Matt Hermann