How can United stop Vardy?

After firing Leicester in contention for a European berth less than a year after they were battling relegation, Vardy is such a hot property that Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri this week felt compelled to plead with the forward to ignore offers from bigger clubs in the January transfer window.

Van Gaal regards Vardy as a “nasty” threat, but one he feels his new and improved defence can cope with.

The Dutchman drew parallels between Vardy and Arsenal great Dennis Bergkamp, who played under Van Gaal at Ajax. “He scores, he provoked a penalty, now scoring 10 goals in a row, he is a great player”.

“I only know, for example, Dennis Bergkamp as a player with me did the same with Ajax and that is not so easy”, he said.

There was little will from Van Gaal to discuss last year’s eight-goal thriller, in which United held a two-goal lead twice.

If Vardy does break van Nistelrooy’s record it will continue a remarkable rise for a player who was in non-league football with Fleetwood only a few years ago and last season scored just five goals for Leicester. “Normally these kind of clubs can be a long time competing, but normally at the end it’s more hard”. “But in England because of the quality of the teams, because every team has the money to buy players – and they have bought players – the difference in the Premier League between the clubs is not so high”.

Rooney and his fellow United forwards have only nine league goals to their credit and they drew a blank again in midweek with a 0-0 draw against PSV Eindhoven that left them in danger of missing out of the Champions League knockout stages.

You are playing for the fans, so you can not deny that. “Of course [you want to please the fans] because the fans have to be happy”, said Van Gaal.

“But also you have to see how our opponents are playing against us, and when you see how they play, you know the difficulty of organizing against that type of opponent”.

“We are still not lucky in finishing the chances”. “I think we need to score more goals as a team”.

“I’ve thought for some time that something could be done about it and after several conversations with my agent and my fiancee, Becky, we made a decision to set up V9 to unearth talent and give those players a shot – hopefully at earning professional contracts but also to learn what it takes to be a professional at the highest level”.

This Saturday evening, first and second in the Premier League will clash, with two contrasting ideologies.

Van Gaal will be without Ander Herrera, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia for Saturday’s game.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has backed the decision to send striker James Wilson out on loan.

‘He’s an exciting young striker and we hope that this move will prove to be very good for all parties involved’.