Comment: Manchester United Supporters Should Be Thrilled By Holland's World Cup Success

There won't be much time for Louis van Gaal to get to know the squad he has inherited at Manchester United. But it only took the Dutch national team manager a little over a month to assemble, organise and motivate his World Cup side who emerged as comfortable winners of Group B.

Prior to the start of Brazil 2014, the Netherlands were (at best) a "dark horse" to win their group, with Spain and Chile receiving most of the pre-tournament attention. Many were predicting "La Roja" to walk away with the group, while pointing to their South American opponents as the runners-up.

According to football pundits, the Netherlands were going to struggle with the loss of their midfield colossus Kevin Strootman, and be severely hampered by the youth and inexperience of their defence. It would take every bit of Van Gaal's managerial prowess to organise and galvanise this Dutch squad.

Then a funny thing happened on the road to the World Cup's Round of 16: Spain were out-managed and thoroughly out-played by Holland in their opening match, then the Oranje fought past a motivated Australian side before easily dispatching Chile to win the group.

The Netherlands are still a dark horse to win the tournament, but each Dutch player is performing at the highest level, the squad as a whole is visibly inspired and are clearly capable of beating any team they are drawn against.

Holland's World Cup success to date is a credit to the individual players on the Dutch side, but it is chiefly the result of the tactical genius and man-management capabilities of Van Gaal.

Manchester United supporters should be thrilled by the successes of the Netherlands in this World Cup.

If Van Gaal can continue to orchestrate a deep World Cup run for Holland (possibly winning the tournament) despite the "negatives" of the Dutch squad that were previously so apparent to footballing experts, just think what he will do in a short amount of time with the United side he has inherited.

Of course, the longer the Netherlands stay in the tournament, the less time Van Gaal will have to get to work with his new Premier League side.

But the manager has shown in this tournament that it doesn't take long for him to mobilise the unit he oversees.