Giggs: Why Rooney said he learnt more in 2 years under LvG than his 9 years under Ferguson

Manchester United legend, Ryan Giggs has tried to make a meaning out of Wayne Rooney’s claims of learning more under Louis van Gaal in two years than in the nine years he spent under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Popular regarded as the greatest Premier League manager and ome of the best club managers of all time, Wayne Rooney’s claimed came as a rude shock to many.

Wayne Rooney was quoted last week saying it was Louis van Gaal who had the most impact on him not Alex Ferguson who signed him from Everton as a teenager.

‘For me, it was an absolute joy to work with him. We should have kept him for a third season. We would have been so much stronger,’ Rooney is quoted in the Mirror from new book LVG – The Manager and the Total Person.

‘I felt things were improving and players started to understand his vision. In those two years I learned more than under any other manager.

‘This is why I will be forever grateful to him. Not just for making me captain, but also for all the trust and belief he had in me.’

Having played under Ferguson for nine seasons, it might seem a dig at the Scot to say he learned more in two years under the Dutchman, but Giggs understands Rooney’s feeling.

‘I understand what Wayne was saying,’ Giggs told MUTV Group Chat.

‘Obviously we both worked under Sir Alex. I’ve known Sir Alex since I was 13.

‘He had everything, man management, discipline, standards, tactics, knowing a player. But with the manager, with Sir Alex it was a lot of we had such good players, and a lot of players who had been together you just go out and just play you knew your role it was a matter of just tweaking it.

‘With Louis it was probably the opposite. We played different systems at United. Under Sir Alex we probably more or less played one system and we’d tweak it. I can’t ever remember playing three at the back. Maybe once or twice if we need to hold on. But other than that we didn’t.

‘Then Louis came into it playing three at the back, then he would change it into a diamond, then he would change it to 4-3-3 so in that respect you were learning how to play different systems and why you would play them systems. Of course some worked some didn’t.

‘There was actually an understanding of different ways to play. ‘So I understand what Wayne was saying because Louis worked a lot more on the training pitch with regards to patterns of play and tactical work and he came from Holland with an international background to actually taking that into club football so a lot of meetings, players felt sometimes too many but with Sir Alex it was quite simple.

‘I’m not saying we didn’t have meetings, of course we did but we had such good players that the manager would just have to tell them once and it would just be a little tweak here. You know Park go and mark Pirlo or something like that to stop a team playing and Ji would do it and do it brilliantly.

‘So I know what Wayne meant with regards to we’ve learned a lot under Louis.’

Wayne Rooney played under Ryan Giggs between 2014-2016 when Ryan Giggs was a coach under the Dutch. Manchester United won the FA in 2016.