After dispatching Shrewsbury Town 3-0 in the FA Cup fifth round, Manchester United are now set to face off against West Ham United in the sixth round. The win, whilst expected proved to be a much needed one for the Red Devils after their embarrassing UEFA Europa League loss to FC Midtjylland, as the FA Cup represents the club’s best chance of winning some silverware this season after eliminating themselves from the Premier League title race and putting themselves in a very tricky position for the Europa League.
Louis van Gaal was delighted with the win and made it clear that he is the man for the job, however with every game putting his position under further scrutiny, it has to be asked how much longer he’ll be in the job for.
After losing to Midtjylland in the round of 32 fixture, familiar calls for van Gaal to be sacked came calling. He has been heavily criticised for his style of play this season as it has been overly defensive and possession based; United are club with an attacking tradition and Louis van Gaal has been accused of striping the club off that. The pressure has continually mounted on the Dutchman as the season has progressed, he was criticised at the start of the season for his style of play however Manchester United looked as if they may have had a chance of winning the title at that point.
After dropping so many points, van Gaal came in for fierce criticism from club legend Paul Scholes and recently his style was criticised by former United defender Rio Ferdinand.
It’s been reported that Louis van Gaal has a few matches to save his job and the win against Shrewsbury was one of those matches. It is widely believed that Jose Mourinho will take over duties as manager at the end of the season with assistant manager Ryan Giggs also being touted as a potential replacement. Should van Gaal only have a few matches to prove that he’s the man to take the club forward, he’ll have some tough games including Saturday where the Red Devils host title challengers Arsenal as well as Manchester City on 20th March.
It is going to be an interesting few weeks for Manchester United as their UEFA Champions League hopes hang in the balance, along with their credibility and most importantly Louis van Gaal’s job.