Even at the age of 70 and after a less successful last spell as club manager at Manchester United, Louis van Gaal's legendary confidence has not suffered - as was seen on Monday.

For years there has been a football debate in the Netherlands about the beauty of attacking play and the constraints of reality.

There is always a dispute as to whether it is possible for the national team's performances to meet the aesthetic demands of this football nation in the system with three central defenders that has often been chosen recently.

"My belief is that we can best play this system with the players we have," said the coaching legend, adding one of those little overbearing Van Gaal phrases that are so typical of this man: "Unfortunately, I'm mostly right."

Van Gaal will also let his team play like this on Tuesday evening (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the national soccer team and on ARD) in the game against Germany, and the atmosphere in the run-up to this test, which is important for both nations, is one of mutual respect and sympathy determined, which was not always so pronounced when Dutchmen met Germans.

"I think the Germans are very friendly people, I lived there, I know that," said van Gaal to a reporter who had recalled the poison in previous duels.

On the other hand, people even rave about van Gaal and his importance for the development of the game in the Bundesliga.

"Müller always plays for me"

On Monday, van Gaal was confronted with a statement from 2009 that is still very present in Germany and especially in Munich.

When the Dutchman was hired by the record champions that summer, after a few first impressions of a 19-year-old talent from the second team who had hardly been noticed by his predecessors, he said: "Thomas Müller always plays for me." he for amazement, but was quickly praised because he so clearly recognized the talent of this future world star.

He is looking forward to seeing you again and will take a few minutes to chat, said Müller last week, again pointing out the legacy of his sponsor: "Despite his somewhat shorter tenure, Van Gaal has not only worked at Bayern Munich, but generally left a lasting impression in the Bundesliga.”

Van Gaal's view of the game was formative for the Munich years of success between 2013 and today, during which he has long since worked elsewhere.

The idiosyncratic Dutchman "gave FC Bayern a new face" and gave the players "a new way of playing football", said Philipp Lahm on "Bild TV" last weekend, a style "with more possession of the ball and more control". .

It was the Dutchman who retrained Bastian Schweinsteiger from a winger to a midfielder, Lahm learned how a left-back can play the game and Hansi Flick was also inspired by his colleague.

He is looking forward to meeting van Gaal, "who shaped football in Munich, the philosophy," said the national coach.

He was "oriented very much towards Dutch football, Foppe de Haan, Johan Cruyff, van Gaal".

However, the Dutchman's results at Bayern were not satisfactory and van Gaal's way of communicating was difficult for some Munich residents to accept.

Rankings are circulating on the Internet with "van Gaal's victims", in which players such as Ángel Di María, Rivaldo, Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose, Lucio or Robin van Persie appear.

In his biography, Klose describes how arrogantly he felt treated by van Gaal after barely playing under the coach in his first year and scoring four goals at the World Cup in South Africa the following summer.

Back in Munich, van Gaal acted as if he hadn't noticed anything about Klose's good performances.

"It's difficult to talk to him because he doesn't accept other people's opinions," said the then President of Munich, Uli Hoeneß.

After 20 months, van Gaal was released.

Van Gaal wants to be world champion

Ryan Gravenberch is feeling the rough nature of this football teacher these days.

The midfielder courted by FC Bayern was not invited to the national team because he was going through a "very bad phase", van Gaal explained, Gravenberch promptly contradicted: After the winter break and a Covid illness, he was just getting back into shape.

The fact that van Gaal places less emphasis on diplomacy and harmony than most younger coaches can be quite tiring.

For example for the hosts of the World Cup in Qatar.

The Dutchman recently declared that it was "ridiculous", even "bullshit", to hold such a tournament in this country, triggering an angry backlash.

"For someone who has been around for so many years and understands the power of football, it's ridiculous to make such a meaningless statement," said World Cup boss Hassan al-Thawadi.

He was sure van Gaal "didn't take much time" to deal with the importance of football in Qatar and the Arab world.

But that's not the main job of this particular coaching figure, whose greatest achievements were winning the Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995 and finishing third with Holland at the 2014 World Cup.

Now he's building a team around captain van Dijk and Frenkie de Jong from FC Barcelona that should crown his life's work: Van Gaal wants to become world champion.

What else.