Back in July, Manchester United manager made a mistake when he referred to defender Chris Smalling, who was sitting right next to him, as Mike at a press conference for the pre-season International Champions Cup. Tuesday night, after United defeated CSKA Moscow, he made the same mistake as he once again referred to his now star defender as “Mike.”
The question is whether this was a joke, a simple mistake or if van Gaal simply hasn’t learned his best defenders name yet after 16 months with the club.
Despite the flub, Smalling has taken it in stride. “The players don’t call me Mike but a lot of the fans do. Even if you go to Russia or wherever it’s Mike! Mike! Mike! It’s going to stick with me forever that one,” Smalling said with a smile after United’s Champions League clash with CSKA.
Despite Smalling laughing off the slip of the tongue, when you combine van Gaal repeatedly not knowing his players names with reports that he is losing the dressing room, it does raise questions as to what exactly is going on inside Old Trafford. If the dressing room truly is slipping away from van Gaal, a quick step to help fix that would probably be ensuring that he knows at the very least, all the first team players’ full names.
