Will van Gaal leave Manchester United?

Louis van Gaal has blamed Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat against Stoke City on the “wind” and the “pressure” at the Britannia stadium.

Van Gaal has recently reacted angrily to speculation over his future, storming out his pre-match media conference earlier this week.

After the morale-boosting result against United, Hughes will take Stoke to Goodison Park on Monday to play an Everton team who also have 26 points from their first 18 matches – six adrift of Tottenham in fourth place.

With just two days to recover both physically and mentally after the Stoke loss, Van Gaal has called on his players to be courageous against the Premier League champions, who are unbeaten in five against United.

“We lost too many challenges, they were sharper than us, and we were a bit unlucky as well”, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

There was a brief glimmer of hope for Van Gaal when Rooney squared for Marouane Fellaini, but the Belgian scuffed his shot and Butland saved.

“I have received (support) all the time, but we have lost today, so there is a new situation”. This was their fourth loss in succession – the club’s worst run within a season since 1961 – and reduced manager Louis van Gaal to a dead man walking in the eyes of the British media.

United were woeful against Stoke and they let down all of the 2,500 travelling fans.

Wayne Rooney has shown sympathy for his manager and said United’s players were working hard to ease the pressure on van Gaal.

Wayne Rooney was forced to start a league game on the bench for the first time in two years, and United provided a greater threat only with its captain on the field in the second half.

Van Gaal’s about-turn came at halftime when Rooney spent the break warming up before coming on to replace Depay.

The answer for Van Gaal is surely to negate Chelsea’s counterattacking threat – and therefore playing counterattacking football himself.

“I can also quit by myself”, Van Gaal said when asked about receiving assurances about his job security, before adding: “It is not always… the club has to fire or sack me”. In my opinion, that is the reason they could not play football. “I have to deal with that, but much more important is that the players have to deal with that because they have to perform”. In the second half we played better but the problem is we don’t dare to play and that’s my analysis. “Second half we were in a losing position and we can give everything more easily and that we have done but then you have to score the first chance”. Meanwhile, Pedro Rodríguez and Willian ensure Chelsea have plenty of players capable of carrying the ball forward from deep, even if Eden Hazard misses out through injury.

“It was another tremendous performance from us, and at key times a very professional one, I would suggest”, he said.