Louis van Gaal Starts Manchester United Tenure

Louis van Gaal is expected to meet with Manchester United players and staff upon beginning his tenure at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

The 62 year old has just two days to acclimatise to life at United before the club fly to Los Angeles ahead of the start of their pre-season schedule in the United States, which begins against LA Galaxy on 23 July.

Fixtures against Serie A duo Roma and Inter Milan follow before facing Champions League winners Real Madrid in Michigan on 2 August. United return to English shores to face Valencia before the Premier League season opener at home to Swansea City on 16 August.

Van Gaal therefore has a month to adapt to his new surroundings at United before the season starts but despite the short-time period will be expected to hit the ground running after guiding Netherlands to third place at the World Cup.

Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw have joined the club already this summer, and Van Gaal is expected to be questioned over any further additions, amid rumours regarding the likes of Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal and Real Madrid's Angel di Maria, while outlining his vision at United during his official unveiling on Thursday.

The former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach will also be pressed on who will replace Nemanja Vidic as United's club captain, with Dutch skipper Robin van Persie heavily linked with the role having been favoured by Van Gaal at international level. Wayne Rooney and David de Gea represent the alternative options.

However, the biggest question facing Van Gaal is whether he can translate his impressive record across Europe to the English game at a club in United who suffered their worst ever Premier League finish in David Moyes' only season in charge.

A succession of experienced players have departed with Vidic and Rio Ferdinand's deals expiring and Ryan Giggs becoming assistant manager while Patrice Evra is reportedly longing for a move to Juventus.

The future of Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who all occupied coaching roles last season before assisting Giggs during his interim spell at the end of last season, is still to be decided and these decisions represent among the first to be made by Van Gaal this week.

Giggs and Dutch trio Albert Stuivenberg, Frans Hoek and Marcel Bout make up Van Gaal's current backroom team.

Upon the start of Van Gaal's three-year contract at United, a host of former players have lended their support to the manager ahead of the highest profile role of his career, including ex-Holland defender Ronald de Boer.

"For me, he was an amazing coach," said De Boer, a winner of the Champions League under Van Gaal while at Ajax.

"If you look back through the names in that team – van der Sar, my brother, Overmars, Kluivert, Davids, Seedorf – you think, 'all those players are stars'. But at that time we weren't stars, we were just up-and-coming stars.

"Van Gaal worked well with younger players and he was telling us which direction we should go. He did it with so much passion and belief so we followed him. And he was always right."