Saturday 26 December 2015 12:48, UK
Louis van Gaal takes his Manchester United side to Stoke on Boxing Day, looking for a first win in seven as speculation over his future intensifies.
United have lost their last three games, leading to suggestions that the club may be ready to replace the Dutchman, with assistant boss Ryan Giggs and newly-available Jose Mourinho among those touted to take over.
Van Gaal hit out at the media in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, accusing the press of publishing false reports over his future and asking if anyone wanted to apologise to him.
It has been reported that the game at the Britannia Stadium, live on Sky Sports 1 HD, is one Van Gaal must win to save his job.
United's last win came at Watford more than a month ago in which time Mark Hughes' Stoke have recorded three victories, including a 2-0 triumph against Manchester City earlier this month.
However, the Potters have failed to win either of their two games since and have beaten United just once in 14 league meetings since returning to the top flight in 2008.
Team news
Stoke will be missing Geoff Cameron (hamstring), Peter Crouch (groin) and Stephen Ireland (hamstring) while long-term absentees Shay Given and Marc Muniesa are also out.
United will be without suspended midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger as well as Matteo Darmian and Jesse Lingard (both hamstring).
Marcos Rojo, Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw are also unavailable.
Opta stats
Stoke City have won just one of their 14 Premier League matches against Manchester United (W1 D2 L11), but have lost just one of the last four at home (W1 D2 L1).
The Potters have never kept a clean sheet against Man Utd in the Premier League.
Stoke have won three and lost three of their seven Premier League games on Boxing Day.
Manchester United have won 18 of their last 19 fixtures played on Boxing Day (W18 L1).
Wayne Rooney has scored on Boxing Day in the last two years (two goals v Newcastle in 2014, one goal v Hull in 2013).
Rooney has scored only two goals in 1140 minutes of Premier League action this season and his minutes per goal ratio (one every 570) is more than double that of any of his previous 13 Premier League seasons as a player.
Manchester United have failed to win any of their last six games in all competitions (L3 D3) - the last time that they went on a run this long within a single season was in their treble-winning campaign of 1998-99 (Dec 1998).
Merson's predictions
It's a must-win game for Louis van Gaal, but I don't see them doing it. Stoke are a decent team, and they don't let in a lot of goals at the Britannia Stadium.
I can't remember a United run of form this bad in recent memory and it's not just that, it's who they're losing to.
You can understand if you're losing against Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City. But, and no disrespect to either team, they are losing to Bournemouth and Norwich now.The best United can hope for is 1-1, and that could be a struggle. I don't like going against Stoke at home, they tend to keep a lot of clean sheets, and I'm going with a win for the Potters again.
PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1 (10/1 with Sky Bet)
Betting
Manchester United are Sky Bet's 11/8 favourites despite their poor form, with Stoke 21/10 to inflict another defeat on Louis van Gaal's men and the same price to hold them to a draw.
United drifted out to 16/1 to win the title following last weekend's Old Trafford loss to Norwich, although they are still odds-on for a top-four finish at 8/11 despite dropping to fifth.
Wayne Rooney heads the first goalscorer betting at 11/2, while Bojan is considered the hosts' biggest threat at 13/2 and is enhanced from 5/1 to 6/1 to score in a Stoke win in Sky Bet's Price Boosts.
Watch Stoke v Man Utd on Sky Sports 1 HD from 12.30pm on Boxing Day.
