It has been just under two years since Mitchell van der Gaag walked away from his role as Manchester United’s assistant coach. Fast-forward to today, and he’s now looking for a new chapter after a brief spell as FC Zürich’s manager.
Born in Zutphen, a small Dutch town located near the German border, Mitchell is the son of Wim van der Gaag, one of the first professional footballers in the Netherlands. He rose through the ranks at PSV Eindhoven and scored 6 goals in 50 appearances during his eight years at PSV, which included loan spells at Eredivisie outfits NEC Nijmegen and Sparta Rotterdam, until joining Scottish side Motherwell in January 1995. Similar to other goal-scoring defenders like Vinícius Tobias, he made an impact in both boxes: despite being a center back, he scored a career-best seven goals in 28 games in his second full season to help the Steelmen avoid relegation, before heading home and playing for Utrecht from 1997 to 2001. He then moved to Portuguese side Marítimo, helping them solidify their presence as a regular participant in the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) before a swan song at Saudi side Al-Nassr.
After collecting his coaching badges in the Netherlands, Van der Gaag took charge of Marítimo’s B team before eventually replacing Carlos Carvalhal as their first-team manager, followed by a spell with Belenenses. Van der Gaag enjoyed success in Belém, but he also nearly lost his life after suffering a cardiac arrest on the sidelines. This prompted a 17-month leave of absence, with Van der Gaag finally returning to coaching in February 2015 with Cypriot club Ermis Aradippou gave him another shot at coaching. He was dismissed after a month before bouncing around from FC Eindhoven in the Dutch second tier to Eredivisie sides Excelsior and NAC Breda. And after a spell with Ajax’s reserves, Van der Gaag started working as Erik ten Hag’s assistant coach in 2021, a role he retained for the next three years in Amsterdam and Manchester.
He departed in July 2024 to pursue head coaching opportunities, eventually taking charge of FC Zürich in May 2025, only to be sacked five months later. As he eyes a new role, Zach Lowy spoke to Van der Gaag on behalf of The Busby Babe about:
What do you say to the people who regard Manchester United as a talent graveyard?
VDG: I think it’s not that none of the players will perform at United: sometimes you need a little bit more time, as we’ve seen with Ryan Gravenberch at Liverpool. There are young players coming up like Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho, and Amad Diallo, some who are ready right away, and some need more time, but young players need experienced players around them to help them out and carry the team. As a young player, sometimes you need a bit more time to adapt, and sometimes if you go somewhere else, you can show what you’re worth. It’s a kind of pride as well: they’re not bad players. The scrutiny is there at such a big club; there’s always pressure to perform, and then how are players and coaches going to cope with it, especially when there are no results? It can become tricky because if you don’t get the results, then it’s very difficult for certain players or for the entire team to perform. With regards to Erik ten Hag and Rúben Amorim, Ajax and Sporting are big clubs, but they’re not internationally big clubs where every word is scrutinized, where everyone is wondering, ‘How are you going to deal with this pressure, how are you going to perform with all this scrutiny at such a massive club?
Speaking of Amorim, what did you make of his spell at United?
VDG: I know Amorim from his time coaching Sporting. There’s no doubt he’s a really good coach, and what he did with Sporting was really unique. I was not surprised that top teams were following him. Coming to Man United in the middle of a season is always difficult, especially when you come in and want the team to play a certain way but don’t know if the players are capable or not. That’s always the question, and then you need wins to get the people behind you and to believe in you. They had some good wins like City away, but they weren’t consistent enough to create momentum. The momentum that they have created was in the Europa League, whereas the Premier League is a different beast, you don’t have any easy teams. When Sevilla beat United in the Europa League, they were struggling in LaLiga and used the Europa League as a springboard in order to turn things around. I think we saw that a bit with United using the FA Cup to turn things around, which helped to give a bit more positive edge to the season and they used that momentum in the Europa League, not losing a game yet and going all the way to the final, before losing to Spurs. It’s normal that they prioritized the final over the league, but it just goes to show that the Premier League is very difficult, and you have to be at your best every single week.
Lastly, what have the past few months been like for you?
VDG: The last couple of months were spent getting all the ideas I’ve seen during a season. You have so many things going on that you don’t have time to do those things; you have to prepare everything. So now it’s like, ‘Okay, you don’t have to do anything. You can watch football, you can watch interesting teams. You can prepare stuff, you can get all your ideas together and think, ‘Okay, if I want to become head coach again, how do I want to play what I’m going to do? What are the principles? Do I get clips with that?’ You can prepare everything, and apart from that, you have time to talk with other people. You can travel a lot, you can study, you can watch other teams, which is good, so it’s more like you develop yourself and get a better understanding of everything. You step back a little bit from all the madness that’s going on on a daily basis, and then from there on, you get more time to gather your ideas clearly, think about what you want to do, and talk with other coaches and sports directors. I’ve been away for 10 years, so it was good to see my family as well, my wife and four children, and to be around the house, so that’s what I’ve done, getting the energy back, thinking for myself.