“He was last season a very nasty player for us, ” Van Gaal said. If you were to name a shortlist for the Premier League’s player of the year so far both would have to be included. I only know Dennis Bergkamp as a player at home who did the same with Ajax. “It’s not so easy to do that”.
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When asked if Vardy was a potential January transfer target, Van Gaal added: “That’s none of your business”.
“Last week as you said, we had a bad result against West Brom and so did Manchester City (against Liverpool), so it compacted the whole table”. United’s position among the title contenders – after two years out of the race for the championship – is perhaps stopping more dissent among the fans.
Van Gaal believes the league leaders, who are one point above United, are capable of sustaining their title challenge until the end of the campaign.
“I don’t think anybody has expected that, even Leicester themselves”, he said.
United recovered from the defeat at Leicester to qualify for the Champions League last term, but expectations have grown since. After a frustrating evening in the UEFA Champions League against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday, the Reds will be out to prove a point and, if a United man finds the back of the net, it will be the team’s 100th goal away at Leicester in all competitions.
“Players of his age need to play and, of course, I can imagine that fans are thinking “that is ridiculous, they have difficulties scoring”, but that is a short-term thought”.
“In the first half we were the better team and created a few decent chances, and maybe were unlucky not to come in at the break one up”.
Yet he was peremptory in his response to Keane’s claims in midweek that Wayne Rooney was “awful”, insisting: “I don’t want to give the honour to answer this question because it is too much honour to the one who says these things”.
United are second with 27, followed by Manchester City and Arsenal on 26 and Tottenham Hotspur in fifth place on 24, with speculation beginning to build on whether Leicester can mount a realistic challenge for a top four finish. Phil Jones, Michael Carrick and Ander Herrera are all still doubtful, while Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw remain definite absentees.
Wilson has been with Manchester United since the age of seven and has represented England at every level from under 16 to under 21.
Collectively, United have scored just six more league goals than Vardy (13) this season. Louis Van Gaal’s side has been short of goals drawing five of their last eight games.
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The 19-year-old Wilson has joined second-tier Brighton for the rest of the season, leaving United with just two out-and-out strikers – Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial – in its squad. Everybody plays different football in the countries where we are coming from – Germany, France, wherever.
