MOTD: Manchester United 0-0 PSV Eindhoven

Claudio Ranieri hopes Jamie Vardy can show Leicester City the way against Manchester United and open up their resolute defence. It is dependent not always on the quality and shape of the player at the moment, but also the game plan.

Opposition coach van Gaal feels Leicester fully deserve their place at the summit, and is wary coming up against their experienced manager on Saturday evening.

Vardy will break Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 10 straight Premier League matches if he finds the net at the King Power Stadium. This is an incredible achievement for Leicester, who were rock bottom of the league at this stage previous year.

Despite the lack of goals, both teams played some fine football in patches with United going close to scoring three times in the first half although they lacked sharpness in front of goal.

But Van Gaal confirmed he will miss the game along with Jones, who again suffered another setback.

“In personality they are different, but I don’t know Vardy so well, but it is like that”.

“Obviously Jamie is doing really well and we’re very happy to support him with his goal streak and he’s helping us”.

A 0-0 draw with PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night was their fourth stalemate in seven games and left them needing a win in their final group game at Wolfsburg to advance in the Champions League.

United have scored only six goals in their last eight games, four of which have been 0-0 draws, but while van Gaal admitted being concerned, he drew encouragement from the handful of chances his side had created. He does not have too many possibilities to play on a higher level.

“It shall be hard to stop him but we can do that because we have a lot of clean sheets already”.

“They wanted to win”. He is a fantastic manager. “We even got more space in midfield and on the sides”.

He added, however, that he is looking forward to the visit of Manchester United, especially as victory over them could reveal whether they have what it takes to stay at the right end of the table. “For me he’s a champion because he thinks more about the team than himself”, Ranieri said at a pre-match press conference.