{"id":449984,"date":"2026-02-28T08:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449984\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T08:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:52:17","slug":"edwin-van-der-sar-picks-who-he-preferred-between-louis-van-gaal-and-sir-alex-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449984\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwin van der Sar picks who he preferred between Louis van Gaal and Sir Alex Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=unitedinfocus.com \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Add as preferred source on Google <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>Edwin van der Sar has named Louis van Gaal as his favourite manager, despite spending six years playing under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>When comparing the best goalkeepers in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/club-history\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester United\u2019s history<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/edwin-van-der-sar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Edwin van der Sar<\/a> ranks highly with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/peter-schmeichel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Schmeichel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/david-de-gea\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David de Gea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The only regret United had with Van der Sar was not signing the Dutch stopper earlier in his career. Even signing at 34, the former Ajax and Juventus keeper had time to show his class at the very highest level.<\/p>\n<p>Van der Sar won four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/premier-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> titles at United, as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/champions-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Champions League<\/a>, the Club World Cup, and two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/carabao-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">League Cups<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>          Do you agree with Edwin van der Sar over his Lammens praise? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">He was excellent against Everton, but is he the long-term goalkeeper for United?<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/UIF-2026-02-23T222526.304-819x1024.png\" alt=\"Edwin van der Sar quotes on Senne Lammens\" class=\"wp-image-332658\" \/>Getty Images.       <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262322622-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Edwin van der Sar watching Ajax\" class=\"wp-image-333534\" \/>Photo by Rico Brouwer\/Soccrates\/Getty ImagesEdwin van der Sar picks Louis van Gaal over Sir Alex Ferguson<\/p>\n<p>Van der Sar maintains that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/louis-van-gaal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Louis van Gaal<\/a> is the best coach he ever played for.<\/p>\n<p>The iconic Dutch coach served as United manager between 2014 and 2016, culminating in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/fa-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FA Cup<\/a> glory just days before his dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>Van Gaal struggled at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/old-trafford\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Old Trafford<\/a>, but there was a feeling that he was past his prime, or that the modern game had left him behind.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest positives that came under Van Gaal include winning the FA Cup and introducing a young <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/marcus-rashford\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marcus Rashford<\/a> to the world. Other than that, his spell was marked by underwhelming performances and poor recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite all of that, Van der Sar says Van Gaal is the best coach he has worked with.<\/p>\n<p>During a 19 quickfire session with former United teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/gary-neville\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Neville<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/the-overlap\/id1568471572?i=1000751857170&amp;r=226\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Overlap<\/a>, Van der Sar revealed that Van Gaal was the best coach he had during his playing years.<\/p>\n<p>When Neville pressed the former goalkeeper on whether Van Gaal was better than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/sir-alex-ferguson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a>, the 55-year-old replied: \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, former Barcelona midfielder Andreas Iniesta has told <a href=\"https:\/\/vm.tiktok.com\/ZNRaFRCTq\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Senen Moran<\/a> that Van Gaal is the manager he had in his career who surprised him most.<\/p>\n<p> Who is Manchester United\u2019s best manager since Sir Alex Ferguson? <\/p>\n<p>         Louis van Gaal handed Edwin van der Sar his Ajax debut<\/p>\n<p>Not only did Van Gaal play a significant role in Ajax signing Van der Sar from VV Noordwijk, but he also gave the goalkeeper his debut at the Eredivisie club.<\/p>\n<p>Van der Sar became the starting goalkeeper and eventually won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/champions-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Champions League<\/a> in 1995, after a 1-0 win over AC Milan in the final. They famously had an unbeaten record for the entire 1994\/95 season in the Eredivisie and Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>They formed a reunion between 2000 and 2002 when Van Gaal served as head coach of the Netherlands for the first time, but they didn\u2019t enjoy the same level of success from their time together at Ajax.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n<p>   <script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Edwin van der Sar has named Louis van Gaal as his favourite&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[25784,218,39895,14471,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-449984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-edwin-van-der-sar","tag-football","tag-louis-van-gaal","tag-sir-alex-ferguson","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}