Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal seems to have weathered the worst of the recent storm and come out of the other end. Quite how he escaped the sack after the recent relegation form and worst December in Manchester United’s history is totally beyond us.
But hey, Ed Woodward knows what he’s doing right?
Anyway, the Manchester United manager gave his weekly press conference ahead of a pretty much no win game against Sheffield United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup 3rd Round on Saturday (17:30 GMT) and here are the main points.
Injuries
Good news on Jesse Lingard – if you are a Jesse Lingard fan. Louis said:
“He has trained fully this week so he is ready.”
And in terms of the long-term absentees Antonio Valencia, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo are all doing really well in their recoveries:
“All three are going very well. Shaw and Valencia also had a holiday break and they have come back very brightly and they have the spirit to continue so that’s very good. Rojo was here and shall also have a break at the end of January when it is possible for him. But it is going very well.”
He did say however that several players are struggling for fitness after the gruelling Christmas fixture list:
“Phil Jones is injured and a lot of players are in the red zone,”
and on Ashley Young:
“He is not injured, he is overloaded and in the red zone. More players are in the red zone and we have to decide if they can play against Sheffield United or not.”
Strangely there was no talk of player transfers but LvG was asked if Pep Guardiola’s decision to manage in England was likely to affect his status as Manchester United manager:
“I have already said that I am at the end of my career so for me it is not so interesting. For me, what is interesting is how I take care of Manchester United and I still have one year to go after this season.”
All in all it was a fairly low-key Manchester United conference and it seems that Louis van Gaal is not coming out to play with the media any more after he clearly felt that they all went to town on his potential sacking.
