Louis van Gaal coy on Manchester United future

Louis van Gaal does not know whether he will be at Manchester United next season if he fails to qualify for the Champions League.

United are six points shy of fourth-placed Manchester City with 13 matches of the season to play.

Asked whether failure to make the top four or qualify for the Champions League via the Europa League would cost him his job, the United manager said: “It’s not a question for me, it’s a question for the board of Manchester United, you have to put it to them. I have a contract for three years and you know that.”

Van Gaal insists he has no problem with United’s failure to back him publicly.

Speculation has been swirling around Van Gaal since United slipped out of the top four and exited the Champions League.

Unlike when David Moyes was under pressure, United have failed to intimate that Van Gaal has their backing.

Some have taken that as a sign that Van Gaal has lost the faith of the board and that they are considering replacing him with Jose Mourinho.

“I am not agreeing with that,” said Van Gaal the Dutchman said when asked if he was disappointed about any lack of public backing from the club.

“Because I have said many times that not all the media, but a lot of media, is inventing stories and you don’t have to answer on invented stories.

“I agree with this policy of the club.”

A winless run of eight matches towards the end of the year left Van Gaal’s position under scrutiny.

United’s form has improved since the start of the year, however. The Red Devils have lost just once in 2016 and sit fourth in the form table.

Van Gaal has challenged his team to put together a series of wins to break into the top four. “I have to say that we are doing great in that perspective,” Van Gaal said of the mood in the camp.

“We have lost in December four matches in a row and when you see us playing now you can only say that we care, we are mentally very strong and we can cope with the pressure.

“But that is not enough — we have to improve our results in consistency and win a lot of matches in a row now. We have to reduce the gap with our competitors.

“When you see our results in 2016, when we have that whole season, we are the champions. We have to show it every week now because of the fact that the gap is so big.”

Victory over Sunderland this afternoon would move United within three points of the Champions League places.

Unfortunately for Van Gaal, eight players are absent through injury. Long-term absentees Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Antonio Valencia, Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Ashley Young remain sidelined. Phil Jones, Adnan Januzaj, and Guillermo Varela all suffered injuries in the U21s’ 7-0 win over Norwich on Monday.

“We have a lot of injuries and we have to cope with that,” said Van Gaal. “When you play a lot of matches, it is more difficult.”

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce believes Van Gaal is strong enough to deal with the speculation about his future.

“Louis van Gaal is experienced enough across the whole of Europe to cope with those additional pressures which are thrust upon him at the moment,” said Allardyce.

“He will be focused on his team getting yet another result because they are in good form at the moment, so the players are doing his talking for him at the minute.”

Meanwhile, Inter Milan’s Japanese defender Yuto Nagatomo has claimed he turned down an offer to join United in January. “I turned down an offer from Manchester United, as my desire is to stay here. I have an excellent rapport with [manager] Roberto Mancini.”

Manchester United have parted company with youth coach Paul McGuinness as part of the revamp of their academy begins. McGuinness, himself a United academy product and son of former United manager Wilf McGuinness, has been in charge of the U18s since 2005 but has seen a dramatic slump in standards, with his side bottom of the Premier League’s U18 North Division with only 11 points from 19 matches this season.