As-Syafii and Al-Ghazali

Albeit being recognized as Founder of the Syafii school of thought, As-Syafii did not during his lifetime profess the same Asyari creed as that of Al-Ghazali, and his methodology of deriving 'ijtihad' directly from the Quran and the Sunnah as understood by pious predecessors differed greatly from that of Al-Ghazali who derived his by blind imitation mainly of As-Syafii's legal rulings
As-Syafii himself followed the creed of the salaf, as revived by Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and later on defended by Syaikh Al-Islam Ibn Taimiyyah, while Al-Ghazali had been staunch defender of the Asyari creed, founded by Ibn Kullab but falsely attributed to Imam Al-Asyari
During the lifetime of Ibn Taimiyyah, Syafii school of thought had been subverted by the Asyaris who sought to get Syafiis to follow their creed, but the effort was made fruitless by the joint efforts of the traditionalists (salafis) in both Hanbali and Syafii schools of thought
Al-Ghazali belongs to Syafiis who are Asyaris in creed, while Syafii scholars like Ibn Kathir belongs to Syafiis who follow the footsteps of the Founder, Imam As-Syafii whose creed did not differ from that of the salaf, as defended by Ibn Taimiyyah
The book will be a real eye opener to both Salafis and Asyaris of Syafii school of thought and also to Muslims of other Sunni fiqh denominations
Majority of today's so-called Syafiis are not really following Imam As-Syafii himself in creed and methodology, rather they're following Imam Al-Ghazali

References

Abu Hurairah Al-Malizi