Familiar Foes For Van Gaal

After Louis van Gaal overcame a familiar adversary in Ronald Koeman on Sunday, Manchester United's next two matches inside a week will also bring up managerial names from his past.

A third win from five personal meetings with the Southampton boss was secured at St Mary's, courtesy of the 3-2 success, after the two worked together at Ajax. With the Reds moving up to second place in the Barclays Premier League table, attention switches to the Capital One Cup on Wednesday and a home tie with Ipswich Town.

The Suffolk side are managed by Mick McCarthy, whose Republic of Ireland side effectively knocked the Netherlands out of the qualifying stage of the 2002 World Cup, thanks largely to an inspirational performance by ex-United skipper Roy Keane at Lansdowne Road and the rub of the green in the closing stages.

Ireland won 1-0 with a Jason McAteer goal, despite playing the last 32 minutes with 10 men after Gary Kelly's sending-off, and van Gaal will have painful memories of the occasion. After a 2-2 draw in the opening qualifying game of that group at the Amsterdam Arena, with the Dutch coming back from 2-0 down to earn a point, the United boss will be keen to record a first win over a McCarthy team in midweek.

Following the Ipswich encounter, Sunderland visit Old Trafford with Dick Advocaat's men struggling at the foot of the table after losing to Bournemouth at the weekend. However, the Black Cats chief actually has an excellent head-to-head record against his fellow former Netherlands national team coach.

Advocaat, whose former teams include PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar, has only lost once to a van Gaal side in nine meetings between the pair, although there have been five draws. When van Gaal oversaw the 2-0 victory over Sunderland last February, with Wayne Rooney scoring twice, it was during the final days of Gus Poyet's reign at the club, before the current manager took over and guided the Wearsiders to safety.

A 10th clash between the experienced Dutch tacticians will be a record for Advocaat, overtaking his tally for head-to-heads with Henk ten Cate. As for van Gaal, after Saturday's game, he will only have had three more common managerial foes in the opposing dug-out – ten Cate, Huub Stevens and Wim van Hanegem.

So the boss will be out to follow up Sunday's success with two home wins that not only boost the Reds further but also go some way to setting the record straight with tricky opponents from his past.