#2 \'Mike\' Smalling
Van Gaal was appointed as the manager of Manchester United before the start of 2014-15 season, and getting to know your players is one of the first things a manager does at a new club.
However, almost a year later when LVG took the team to a pre-season tour in the United States of America, he forgot the first name of his ‘third captain’, Chris Smalling. The ex-Barcelona manager instead called the defender ‘Mike’ instead of Chris which made the journalists present in the room chuckle with amusement. The manager immediately apologised to the defender who was sitting next to him.
Although, the Dutchman did not stop there as a few months later in November after United scraped through to a win against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, Van Gaal received a lot of boos from the fans and he looked visibly shaken by it. In the post-match conference when he was talking about the match, LVG said, “...David de Gea saved us and after that ‘Michael’ Smalling saved us.”
Smalling has been one of the best performers for United this term and Van Gaal will do a world of good to the defender’s ego if he doesn’t forget his name again.
