Louis van Gaal being criticised for his style at Manchester United is nothing new - it cost him his job at Bayern Munich but won him the Champions League at Ajax

Louis van Gaal is facing widespread criticism for the style of Manchester United's football at the moment. 

United, the critics say, are too rigid, too dull and nowhere near the swashbuckling excitement of the great United teams of years gone by.

The bad news for United supporters is that this is not the first time their manager has failed to entertain at a club.

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Louis van Gaal (centre) has faced criticism for the style of play that he has imposed at Manchester United

Ajax 1991-97

Ajax fans had to be very patient with Van Gaal before they saw anything approaching the football they had grown accustomed to when he took over in 1991. 

He always says his most important game in his Ajax career was not the 1995 Champions League final but a third-round UEFA Cup game in his first season away to Osasuna that would have earned him the sack had he not won it.

Supporters were calling for Johan Cruyff and the board were on the brink of losing their patience but after a 1-0 victory Ajax went on to win the competition and that bought him time to build his own team. 

By the time he won the Champions League in 1995 there were only two survivors from the side he inherited from Leo Beenhakker – Frank de Boer and Danny Blind. He preferred young players that he could mould to suit his tactics as opposed to established stars.

When Ajax legend Dennis Bergkamp and team-mate Wim Jonk both left for Inter in 1993 Van Gaal turned it into a positive. 

It meant he could bring in a young Finnish trialist by the name of Jari Litmanen and a young Ajax academy product Clarence Seedorf – the former would go on to be considered by many Ajax supporters as a better No 10 than Bergkamp and the latter would win the Champions League four times.

In the end the Ajax supporters did get the right brand of football.

Barcelona 1997-2000 and 2002-03

At Barcelona the accusation was the same as it had been at Ajax. 'He's no Cruyff!' Even though Barcelona won two Ligas and a Copa del Rey in his first two seasons, the football was more functional than vintage. 

Van Gaal's inability to work with already established superstars was a big problem. For Angel di Maria 2014, read Rivaldo 1999.

When the Brazilian returned from winning the Ballon d'Or that year Van Gaal thought it would be a good idea to let him deliver a speech to the dressing room. 

In Van Gaal's first tenure as Barcelona manager, he clashed with Brazil international Rivaldo

Van Gaal promoted youth players such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta in his second spell at Barcelona in 2002-03

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Van Gaal greets Iniesta during Manchester United and Barcelona's United States tour in 2015

Expecting him to thank his team-mates for their part in his personal success Van Gaal was flabbergasted when instead Rivaldo used the platform to tell his manager in front of the entire squad that, as world player of the year, there was no way he would be playing out on the left any more, as Van Gaal desired.

It was humiliating and he ended up selling Rivaldo during his second spell in 2002. There wasn't a great deal of midfield magic either as Van Gaal preferred Phillip Cocu who would run forever in his midfield on one side of Pep Guardiola and converted striker Luis Enrique, who would also run forever, on the other side. 

It was not always pretty but it was effective. In his second spell he preferred to promote young players who were more likely to follow his tactical demands to the letter. 

Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol got valuable game time but he left after a season without a trophy.

AZ Alkmaar 2005-2009

Van Gaal himself admits that he won the 2009 Eredivisie title with AZ Alkmaar playing 'counter-attacking football with no wingers'. 

There was a lack of pace, width and flair about the team but he did have the valid excuse that he did not have the individuals to play any other way. His solution was to build a midfield and front line so fluid that the team seemed to change formation constantly. 

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Van Gaal won the Eredivise in 2009 with AZ Alkmaar and admitted his football was counter-attacking

Captain Stijn Schaars was the defensive foundation while Mounir El Hamdaoui, nominally a No 10, roamed in all directions.

The end result was an unlikely title and AZ's very own brand of total football earning him a shot at the Bayern Munich job.

Bayern Munich 2009-2011

At Bayern, Van Gaal was brought in to help give the club a defined, positive attacking philosophy to go with their established identity as ruthless winners.

He brought much of the flexibility he had used at AZ, moving Bastian Schweinsteiger from the wing into the middle created the World Cup winner we know today, but it also allowed Bayern more space to shift their shape. 

With Mark van Bommel destroying everything in his path, Schweinsteiger could either roam forward or sit in a defensive midfield partnership with the Dutchman. Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery were limited to their wings and Van Gaal's favourite young forward Thomas Muller roamed free with even more unpredictably than El Hamdaoui had at AZ. 

Van Gaal moved Bastian Schweinsteiger into the centre at Bayern Munich, a move which led to great success

Van Gaal won the Bundesliga in 2010 but his defensive, counter-attacking football cost him his job in the end

The prevalence of Muller meant that the old fashioned goalscorers such as Luca Toni quickly fell out with Van Gaal and were jettisoned from the squad. 

That arguably caused problems for him in his second season when Bayern lost their mojo in front of goal.

His response to the crisis was to revert to defensive, counter-attacking football and it worked to an extent, but the Bayern board weren't happy with playing for 0-0 draws against lesser teams and eventually he was fired.

Holland 2000-2002 and 2012-14

Van Gaal's team provided marginally better fare than that served up by Bert van Marwijk four years previous but many Dutch supporters felt that having done the hard bit of coming out of a group that included Spain and Chile they then failed to find another gear in the latter stages of the Brazil World Cup. 

The win over Spain also seemed to be born out of the individual desire of Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie to get revenge for losing the final in 2010 to the Spanish more than anything Van Gaal had schemed. 

He was given credit for throwing Tim Krul on to win the penalty shootout against Costa Rica in the quarter-finals but in the semi-final against Argentina, the team mustered just one shot on target in 120 minutes of football in what was to be the first ever World Cup semi-final to finish goalless after extra-time. 

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Van Gaal steered Holland out of a tough 2014 World Cup group and into the semi-final

Van Gaal brought on goalkeeper Tim Krul before a penalty shootout against Costa Rica, which Holland won

But in his first spell as manager, Van Gaal failed to make the 2002 World Cup and held back tears as he left

Wesley Sneijder playing behind Robben and Van Persie up-front and with Daryl Janmaat and then Dirk Kuyt, and Daley Blind providing the width as wing backs had worked in the group phase but Holland were completely without goal threat by the end of the tournament.

Van Gaal first took over Holland in 2000 but failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.