It would be fair to say that Louis van Gaal has had something of an image problem in recent weeks. And how, in 2016, do you solve such an issue?
Simple: make yourself more gif-able.
The Manchester United boss doesn’t do things by half measures and his touchline dive in the second half has already unleashed a wildfire of memes across social media.
What spurred a 64-year-old to hurl himself to the floor with thousands of television cameras trained on him?
Van Gaal told Sky: “It’s emotion. I don’t let go too much, not every match.
“I’m always sitting on my bench every game. But today my emotion was a little bit too high. I have apologised to the referee and his officials. Everything is already solved.
“I never regret my emotions; in sport it’s good to show your emotions sometimes. But when it is like that I can’t just say it’s very wrong. But for the referee and officials it’s not so nice. I apologised to them but I won’t apologise for being emotional.”
The bizarre dive capped a day that few United fans could have expected going in such a spectacular fashion. 18-year-old league debutant Marcus Rashford scored two and laying on another in a stunning 3-2 victory over title-chasing Arsenal that capped a week in which Van Gaal’s side scored 11 in three games.
After being castigated for much of this season for the tepid nature of his sides’ displays Van Gaal was delighted to see his side open up and cut a title contender apart.
“It’s an important victory over Arsenal who are, in my opinion, one of the best teams in the league,” he added.
“The key factor is always daring to play. We can play very good, but we have to move the ball more quickly and switch the play more frequently.
“The two goals in the first half were both through switching the play, we have improved there. We have to do it more. That’s the key.”
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