Giggs can’t halt United slide

Manchester United 0 Sunderland 1

For the seventh time in the league this season — the same total of home league defeats that Alex Ferguson amassed in his final four seasons in charge of the club combined — United were beaten before their own supporters.

Given the apparently imminent arrival of Dutch national team manager Louis van Gaal, who may be appointed United manager as soon as Wednesday according to reports, it was a curiously lacklustre display from which nobody emerged with any credit.

If this was an audition for a new manager who, to put it kindly, has a reputation for being “no-nonsense” then not many of the starting 11 selected by Giggs can expect to feature prominently under his permanent successor.

Even Giggs, while sticking to his party line that there is an abundance of quality in the United dressing room, talked relatively expansively about the rebuilding task that awaits the new manager.

“Players are going to come in,” said Giggs. “And at United you obviously need that bit of quality that we didn’t show today, but I still maintain there’s quality in the dressing room.

“Of course, the players who come in have got to be good players and improve the squad and team. It’s a big summer, obviously it’s not been a great season, so for us to improve and get back up there we need to improve, whether that be young players getting better or players who haven’t had experience getting better and that includes bringing players in and top players.

“I think with United you’ve got to try and challenge every year so that’s what we’ll do — whether it will happen, we’ll have to wait and see but you’ve seen with Liverpool that — I don’t think anyone here would think that Liverpool would be in the position they are this season — they’ve had a great season so it can happen. I think the fans have been great this year, the supporters understand that we all want to be back up at the top and if it takes a bit of time then I’m sure they’ll support us and we’re all pulling in the right direction.”

If reports are to be believed, pulling in the right direction has not been a theme of life at Old Trafford since Ferguson brought down the curtain on his illustrious career and Van Gaal, who has been known toengender discord within clubs as well as a siege mentality against the outside world, is clearly being viewed as the man to correct that problem.

It remains to be seen what that means for a number of senior players who have hardly covered themselves in glory this season and, of course, begs the question what that means for Giggs, an insanely popular figure with fans and team-mates alike.

Should Van Gaal clash with senior players, or make the sort of start to his United reign that David Moyes endured, does he want Giggs standing in the wings as a natural heir apparent? For now, and with United still harbouring a faint mathematical hope of a top-six finish and Europa League football next season, Giggs can only wait.

“I see the point but we’ve still got a week left and when its going to be sorted out I don’t know,” said Giggs. “But the main thing is for me at the moment is just to try and win the remaining two games.

“The best thing to do is obviously to get the best man for the job and if that takes time then so be it. I don’t think it’s necessarily that it needs to be sorted quickly, its just the best man for the job.”

“I still believe that United should be in Europe. And yeah it was a chance missed today — Tottenham losing we could have staked a claim for sixth place so that’s disappointing as well.”

Seb Larsson’s first-half volley would be followed by Sunderland twice hitting the woodwork in the second half, a clear indication that there was no fluke about a victory that follows their draw at Manchester City and astonishing win at Chelsea in recent weeks. Indeed, seven points adrift at the start of this run, Sunderland’s four-match run of three victories and a draw must be among the most impressive relegation fights in Premier League history.

“Of course it plays on your mind, you can’t blame people for thinking we were dead and buried,” said Larsson of the seven-point gap his side faced after losing to Everton on April 12. “We realised we were in a very difficult position. The manager got us to pick up a couple of good results and the confidence has come back. I have to stress though, that it is not job done just yet, we are in a much stronger position.

“We have been dead and buried loads of times,” said Larsson. “It has been a very interesting season, both as a team and on a personal note. We have shown in the last four games, the togetherness is there. We have been working hard to keep Sunderland in the Premier League and working hard for the shirt. We had to keep believing.”

MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-1-1): De Gea 5; Jones 7, Ferdinand 5, Vidic 6, Evra 6; Young 5 (Welbeck 66, 6), Carrick 4, Fletcher 6, Nani 4 (Januzaj 51, 6); Mata 6 (Van Persie 66, 6); Hernandez 5.

SUNDERLAND (4-1-4-1): Mannone 7; Vergini 7, O’Shea 7, Brown 7, Alonso 6; Cattermole 7; Johnson 6 (Giaccherini 57, 7); Larsson 8 (Bridcutt 73, 6), Colback 7, Borini 7; Wickham 7 (Altidore 64, 7).

Referee: H Webb 7.