Louis van Gaal will risk the wrath of Manchester United’s fans again on Tuesday when his side resume their push for a top-four Premier League finish against Stoke City.
Louis van Gaal will risk the wrath of Manchester United’s fans again on Tuesday when his side resume their push for a top-four Premier League finish against Stoke City.
Having talked up United’s title chances following their 1-0 win at Liverpool, the manager saw his team fall to an abject 1-0 home defeat against Southampton on their last league outing, after which they were booed off by angry fans.
United won 3-1 at second-tier Derby County in the FA Cup on Friday, but van Gaal admitted afterwards that he “cannot predict” how the supporters would react to another setback.
However, captain Wayne Rooney said that criticism of the beleaguered Dutchman was “unfair” and urged his team-mates to use the victory at Derby as a catalyst for an upturn in the league.
“It was obviously a better performance than last week’s game, but the manager gave us a lot of freedom to go and play and I think you can see the difference in the team,” he said.
With 15 games of the season to go, Leicester City remain the unexpected leaders, but they now face a potentially season-defining run of fixtures, starting with a home game against Liverpool.
Having preserved their hopes of a third successive FA Cup triumph by beating Burnley 2-1 on Saturday, Arsenal turn their attention back to the title race on Tuesday when they host Southampton.
