Sunday 27 December 2015 20:08, UK
Louis van Gaal says it is vital Manchester United dare to play their brand of football against Chelsea on Monday.
United go into the game having lost four games in a row in a single season for the first time since 1961 and are without a win in seven games in all competitions.
The 2-0 loss at Stoke City on Boxing Day has seen United slip to sixth place in the Premier League and Van Gaal has admitted his job is becoming "more difficult".
Van Gaal is concerned about the short gap between the Stoke game and the match against the Blues, who themselves have endured a torrid season which has culminated in the replacement of Jose Mourinho by Guus Hiddink.
But Van Gaal has called on his side to return to winning ways against Chelsea and believes United must stand by the principles the former Barcelona manager has implemented at Old Trafford.
"You can say we can quickly get over this defeat by playing against Chelsea but in the time in between, you have to recover because the players have given everything," Van Gaal told MUTV.
"Then you have to manage that you are very confident to start the Chelsea game, and that you dare to play football - our football. It is very difficult to do that in just two days but we shall try.
"At Stoke we lost the game in the first half because we didn't dare to play our football. I said we have to play football at half-time and you have seen the difference, but that is not enough, you have to start in the first minute."
But Michael Carrick feels the quick turnaround between games may benefit United, for whom the pain of the Stoke loss is a lasting one.
Then you have to manage that you are very confident to start the Chelsea game, and that you dare to play football - our football.
"Football can change quickly," said Carrick. "At the moment it is tough to take and it is going to hurt for a couple of days.
"So we have to get our heads right for Monday. It can turn around quickly and if we get a good win then the feeling comes back. Hopefully we will be able to kick on from that."
Van Gaal must decide whether to restore captain Wayne Rooney to his side for the Chelsea game, who began the game at Stoke on the substitutes bench.
Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger returns from suspension for the game against the Blues and defender Matteo Darmian has a chance of making his return from a hamstring injury, but Jesse Lingard (hamstring), Marcos Rojo (shoulder), Antonio Valencia (foot) and Luke Shaw (leg) are out.
