MAN UNITED MANAGER Louis van Gaal hinted he may not last much longer in the role following his side’s 2-0 loss against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium in today’s early Premier League kick-off.

Van Gaal criticised his side after they suffered a fourth defeat on the trot this afternoon for the first time since 1961.

“My thoughts are that we didn’t dare to play football in the first half and then we gave a bad goal away,” he told Sky Sports.

“At half-time, we have spoken with each other, and the second half was much better, but we have created one or two chances that we had to score, and then maybe the belief would have come back.

“The problem is we don’t dare to play — that’s my analysis.”

Asked about his controversial omission of captain Wayne Rooney, Van Gaal added:

“I’m always very faithful and I see also how they have trained, so they want to perform well.

“The circumstances are difficult, not only with the wind, but also with the pressure and that’s the reason why they don’t dare to play football.

“The pressure shall be higher and higher every match. We have to solve that problem.”

Asked whether he still felt capable of turning Man United’s fortunes around, the 64-year-old Dutch coach said: “It’s more difficult… I have to deal with it and more importantly, the players have to deal with it.

“It’s another situation — we have lost the fourth game — so we wait and see (what happens).”

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