‘Worried’ Van Gaal fears United sack

Bookmakers were busy slashing the odds on Louis van Gaal to be replaced in the Manchester United hotseat by Jose Mourinho on Saturday (Sunday NZ time) after a 2-1 home defeat to struggling Norwich City in the Premier League.

Their 2-1 loss to Norwich City was their second in consecutive games against the newly promoted opposition, with the first coming against Bournemouth last weekend.

If Pep Guardiola wants to leave Bayern Munich and head to the Premier League, as most believe is the case, he could barely dream of a better negotiating position, with Manchester City, United and Chelsea all looking for a magic manager to step in.

And Van Gaal admits he’s “worried” he could now be dismissed just 18 months into his reign at Old Trafford, the Manchester Evening News reports.

United’s next home fixture is against Chelsea on December 28 and social media was quickly abuzz with speculation that Mourinho could find himself sitting in Van Gaal’s seat by then. “You can see what confidence is doing to the players”, van Gaal is quoted as saying by the BBC. “I can not close my eyes for that”.

Asked what needed to happen for players to recover their draining confidence, Van Gaal said: “To show your professional attitude – that is the only way you can get that back. Everything I say about the defeat is one word too much because the expectation is that we beat Norwich and we didn’t do that”.

It could prove an even costlier result for Van Gaal, who sat impassively in his seat as United vainly pushed for an equaliser after Anthony Martial reduced the arrears in the 65th minute. I am not the same coach of 25 years ago and I always evaluate.

“Of course, you have to evaluate yourself every day and the players have to evaluate themselves also. Because of that I am, or maybe I should say was, a very successful manager”. But when you’re not conceding goals either, you’ve got half a chance of winning some games. “They press you high up the park and are really in your face”.

Cameron Jerome put Norwich in front before halftime and when Alex Tettey made it 2-0 the atmosphere inside Old Trafford was mutinous.