Thankful for his move to Lyon, Brazilian defender Rafael has admitted that he fell out of love with football under the rule of the Dutchman, Louis Van Gaal.
The 25-year-old full-back made a total of 11 appearances for Van Gaal’s side and soon realised that we were not going to be a part of Van Gaal tactics. “When Van Gaal arrived I could see I wasn’t in the plan. When you’re a player you can feel it, you can see that” added the Lyon regular who felt sad when his association with Manchester United ended after 11 long years but feels that it happened for the best as he is a team regular and feels more free when playing the game than he did under Van Gaal. “To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy playing when Van Gaal was there. I like to enjoy myself, to try things and do stuff. Last year I wasn’t doing that. Consistency is everything in football. You get games, you feel better. You enjoy it more and your fitness is better. When you’ve not played for a long time it’s very hard for the player” further added the ex-Manchester United man.
On why he chose Lyon instead of taking up the offers from other Premier League clubs, Rafael said, “I had some choices to go in England, but, in the end, I wanted to try something different. It’s good to challenge yourself”. Rafael then moved on to reflecting his performance at The Theatre of Dreams under Van Gaal and said that according to him he played decently but one cannot just be sure.
When talking about the disappointment of the fans regarding the tactics of the Dutchman, Rafael revealed that he had been upfront with the manager regarding his tactics and told him to listen to the fans, but he also defended his former boss and said that “Everyone is different. Results matter so if they can win the league it will be a different story”.