Van Gaal 'Needs' Top 4 Finish

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has the squad to finish in the Premier League top four this season, but the Dutchman is not getting the best out of the players at his disposal, says the Daily Mail’s Ian Ladyman.

United lost 2-1 to Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, just their second defeat in the past 20 games.

However, despite that recent good run of form, the pressure to win a trophy and qualify for next season’s Champions League is slowly starting to grow on Van Gaal.

And while the Mail’s northern football correspondent thinks the United hierarchy will be patient with Van Gaal, he also believes the former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has a number of problems that need quickly sorting out if he is to achieve those twin aims.

“Talk to any football manager, you start the season in August and you still do not know what your best team is by February, then I think most managers would accept that they have some problems on their hands,” Ladyman told the Sunday Supplement.

“Those are the problems Van Gaal has at the moment and I am rather baffled by that. United do not have the quality of squad that Chelsea and Manchester City have, it is not as technically proficient as those two and they are not as physically impressive either.

“However, they do have a squad that should be in the top three or four and Van Gaal at the moment is not getting anywhere near the best out of his players.”

“Van Gaal is open enough to admit he does not know his best team or formation. But because he is Van Gaal and has earned the right for people to be patient and given some leeway because of what he has achieved in his career, he will get that patience and leeway.

“But at some point he will have to start showing United supporters he has a firm belief in what he is doing, and at the moment he is not doing that.”

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