Beckenbauer standing by Van Gaal

Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 by PA

Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer has given the club's coach Louis van Gaal his full backing, insisting his club has not made the same mistake as it did in appointing Jurgen Klinsmann last year.

Klinsmann was fired after just 10 months in the job after failing to take them to the top of the table.

"He was different," Beckenbauer said of Klinsmann. "For all the many good ideas he brought, these were simply not enough for FC Bayern. Van Gaal is an expert and a teacher of football. So he is quite the opposite of Jurgen Klinsmann. We just need to leave Van Gaal in peace and give him faith and then things will work."

Bayern have actually made an even worse start to the season under Van Gaal.

Bayern perhaps showed Klinsmann a bit too much faith and patience last season, leaving his successor Jupp Heynckes with an impossible task of winning the league title, although he did still manage to lead them into the Champions League with four wins and a draw.

But according to Beckenbauer, the same situation will not present itself again towards the end of the current season.

"A new broom just needs a bit of time to sweep through and for the players to understand him," he told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper. "I think that he is the right man for FC Bayern. We have made a good choice. He has not been able to do everything he wanted so far, but nothing is lost yet.

"I am convinced that when the squad is fully fit again, we will also win our games."

Bayern currently lie eighth in the table, eight points adrift of the joint league leaders Bayer Leverkusen, coached by Heynckes, and Hamburg having lost twice in the league already.