Former Manchester United
boss David Moyes has warned successor Louis van Gaal he has to qualify for the
Champions league if he is to stand any chance of keeping his job.
Press
Association report continues:
The
Dutchman, whose future has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks amid
speculation that Jose Mourinho is being lined up to replace him, suffered a
further blow on Saturday when his side were beaten 2-1 by lowly Sunderland.
As
the final whistle sounded at the Stadium of Light, fifth-placed United were six
points adrift of the top four and Van Gaal and skipper Wayne Rooney later
admitted winning the Europa League this season could be the easier route to the
Champions League.
But
Moyes, who knows only too well the price of failure at Old Trafford after his
own ill-fated 10-month spell at the helm, has predicted a bleak future for the
manager if he does not get there one way or another.
He
told Sky Sports' Goals on Sunday show: "I knew Manchester United need to
qualify for the Champions League. I think Manchester United need to be there.
"They
are a club of status and want to be at that level, if not more. They want to be
winning it if they can, never mind qualifying for it. That's what happens at
Manchester United. It's that level."
Given
his own experiences at United, Moyes has sympathy for Van Gaal in his current
predicament.
He
said: "There's so much media attention on Louis van Gaal just now. When I
lost my job, he was lauded by everybody in football - by you people, the media
and everybody else. Now many of you are the ones saying he should lose his job.
"If
you go to Manchester United, that's what you get. You get an awful lot of media
attention. But I still believe I was the right person to take the job."
Asked
if he felt he had been treated unfairly by the club in comparison to Van Gaal,
however, Moyes was philosophical.
He
said: "I know that the reason I lost my job at Manchester United was I
didn't win enough games. It's as simple as that."
Van
Gaal left Wearside knowing a top-four finish is now a big ask following a
damaging defeat on top of Chelsea's late equalizer against his team last
weekend.
He
said: "It will be very difficult - I have said that also to the players
because you cannot close your eyes to that.
"(The
defeat) is of course a big blow. I said we had to win this match because we
have to be in the race for the top four positions in the league, and then you
have to win these kind of matches.
"But
we can only blame ourselves because the aggression of Sunderland was much
higher than our aggression and we could not cope with the pressure on the ball
in our own half.
"But
okay, they can play like that and we know that they want to play like that, but
then you have to cope with it."
United
were ultimately undone by two set plays with Wahbi Khazri's third-minute
free-kick evading goalkeeper David de Gea, who could later only help Lamine
Kone's header from a Khazri corner into his own net after Anthony Martial had
levelled.
Van
Gaal said: "A set-play is always risky because we don't have a very tall
team, so we know that in advance and we organise the best header against the
best header. But when you lose them in spite of your good organisation, then
you are frustrated.
"But we have to play
better. Against Chelsea, we played a very good game; today, we didn't play a
very good game."
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