Louis van Gaal faces Wayne Rooney decision, Bastian Schweinsteiger set to return

Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal will quit before he is fired if his team does not “respond” with a convincing performance in what is now a crunch match against Chelsea at Old Trafford on Monday.

Van Gaal hinted after United’s 2-0 Boxing Day defeat by Stoke City that he would leave the club if results did not improve.

On top of that, Van Gaal – appointed in July 2014 -failed to give a convincing answer when asked whether he would still be in charge for United’s next game against Chelsea at Old Trafford tomorrow.

Gaal also added that he feels he has the support of players and the board alike.

On the possibility of Manchester United sacking him, Van Gaal told the BBC: “That is something I discuss with [executive vice-chairman] Ed Woodward not you”.

“He has this talent, but he’s also giving interviews saying: ‘Hey, I have to get used to another way of playing, the intensity of the games every three days, plus the intensity of the game'”.

Stoke have now beaten United, Chelsea and Manchester City at home in the Premier League this season and Hughes was delighted with another impressive display against one of the traditional heavyweights.

“It is not always that the club has to sack me”. “Sometimes I do that by myself…” Please note that comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language and will be removed accordingly.

United slumped to a fourth successive defeat away to Stoke Cityand are now seven matches without a victory.

“We have to stick together and win football matches”.

“We were better in the second half but then we didn’t have anything to lose”.

The Dutchman admitted it would be hard to lift his players for the game against Chelsea. “In football, it generally comes down to the manager and it’s much easier to get rid of the manager than 11 players”. Then the belief is coming back and we played better in the second half, but the problem is we didn’t dare to play.

Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal is not impressed.

Van Gaal, who has stated in the past few weeks that he was under increased pressure of potentially being fired, doesn’t help his case to remain manager of one of the biggest football clubs in the world with the loss to Stoke City.

He said: “Certainly in the first half I thought we were excellent, it would have taken a very good team to stay with us”.

“A month ago we were first in the Premier League but we lost important games and now we have to come back in more hard situations than last year because last year everyone believed and there was progression, now there is a fallback and that is different and everybody is judging also different”, he said.