It’s pretty hard to come out of an interview looking good after you say your manager has a “bulldog face” but Marcos Rojo may actually have pulled it off.
The Manchester United defender admitted that he was intimidated by Louis van Gaal when speaking to Fox Sports Argentina this week but dismissed theories that the Dutchman has it in for players from South America.
“He has a really strong personality, but he is a great person,” Rojo said. “He has a bulldog face, but he is a great guy. He’s scary at first, but when you get to know him and relate to him on a daily basis, you get along. But only if you listen to him.”
There were suggestions that van Gaal had a predisposition to mistreat South American players, something that Diego Forlan claimed over the summer, which won’t have been helped by the departure of Angel di Maria, Rafael and Radamel Falcao over the summer but Rojo insists that he doesn’t believe that is the case.
“He listens to us and even speaks a little bit of Spanish,” Rojo said. “He always takes me to his office for a pep talk.
“The fact that he holds a bad relationship with South American player is just a feeling.
“I’ve been there with [Antonio] Valencia, [Radamel] Falcao, Angel [Di Maria] and he treated us all the same, he never treated us differently.
“Maybe because of his [poor] relationship with Roman [Riquelme] or with Angel leaving, some people got the wrong idea, but he treats us all the same. He is a great person and makes no differences between Europeans and South Americans.”
Word of advice, Mark… Maybe leave the whole ‘bulldog’ thing out the next time you defend your boss.
