Van Gaal revisionism?

Very surprised by some of the comments about Van Gaal on the match thread. This isn’t a defence of Mourinho at all - no one could really complain if he were sacked now, least of all the man himself, who appears to have given up. But I saw people saying things like (not direct quotes but near enough):

1) “Nobody bossed us while Van Gaal was around." Really? Not Spurs and Arsenal in his second season? Even Wolfsburg outplayed us, I’d say. And teams didn’t need to “boss" us. We did nothing with the ball so they let us play it around at walking pace. Who can forget Dec/Jan in his last season - the performances against Norwich, Bournemouth, Stoke, Southampton and Sheffield United? We were utterly toothless.

2) “With two more years and the money Jose has had, nobody can say Van Gaal would not have had us competing." Based on what? Darmian, Schneiderlin, Memphis, Rojo, Di Maria... most of his signings were underwhelming, with only Martial and Blind being successes (I like Shaw and Herrera but neither played enough under him). And in 2016 Conte came in and turned Chelsea around; Pep arrived in England; Klopp got Liverpool firing; and there was still Pochettino and Wenger. We’d have been fifth at best if Van Gaal had stayed. Plus he was not set to stay for a fourth season anyway.

3) “He knew the problem and what needed doing about it." But we were going backwards under Van Gaal and the players looked lost. He took us into the second season with Rooney, Martial and Memphis as our attacking options. It’s alright saying that he knew we needed pace etc. Mourinho knows we need a top CB, but that’s no defence, really.

Like I say, not a defence of Mourinho, who has really messed up this season. I’m just surprised people seem to look back at Van Gaal’s tenure as some sort of golden age of hope, where we just needed the final piece of the jigsaw. I really liked Van Gaal and wanted him to do well, but the fact is that all three managers since Ferguson have failed, with only the odd bright moment. Comparing them just underlines how dramatic the decline has been.