The Dutchman has now admitted making the top four will be tough and with just 12 league games left for the Red Devils to play, time is running out.
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Having seen it all before Moyes can relate to Van Gaal’s situation and he sympathised with the 64-year-old saying, “There’s so much media attention on Louis van Gaal just now”.
The manager, however, refused to accept that he was feeling pressure by his side’s constant dip in form and maintained that he was only focusing on doing his job.
Louis van Gaal’s side travel to Midtjylland this week and Rooney acknowledges the round-of-32 tie is now of greater significance to United’s season.
He told Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday show: “I knew Manchester United need to qualify for the Champions League”.
“I think the game was similar to [Manchester] City but this time we got what we deserved”, said Big Sam. “The chances we created and the clear-cut one we had was worrying me because we should have been 2-0 up”.
The victor arrived when the United goalkeeper failed to deal with a header from Lamine Kone, a £5 million signing from Lorient, with Martial’s attempted goal-line clearance hitting the Spaniard and going in.
Their fading hopes of securing Champions League football have led to suggestions the club hierarchy has entered talks with Mourinho but Van Gaal said he would not reach out to the man who worked under him at Barcelona.
It took Van Gaal’s side half an hour to muster an effort on target, Vito Mannone saving comfortably after Wayne Rooney teed up Mata to send in a tame shot.
Jose Mourinho has been strongly linked with Van Gaal’s job, while another option is to give Ryan Giggs the full-time position following his caretaker spell in charge two seasons ago.
“Now the way with the Europa League is easier I think”, he said. “They had more aggression than us and we could not cope with that aggression”. We didn’t want to be in the Europa League.
“The good thing for us is that we have two week’s break now, because all those injuries have two weeks to get fit”.
Diego Costa, wearing a mask to protect a broken nose, Pedro Rodriguez and Willian all found the net inside the first 17 minutes, with Pedro adding a second goal before substitute Bertrand Traore completed the rout.
According to the Daily Mirror, who cite reports from the Sun, Manchester United are considering hiring Jose Mourinho as early as this season.
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The first half also proved notable for the entrance of Donald Love, who came on for his senior United debut after Darmian injured his shoulder following a collision with impressive home debutant Khazri.
