Louis van Gaal dismisses title talk and insists focus remains on Liverpool

Louis van Gaal dreams of Manchester United being in Chelsea's or Manchester City's position in the league, though the manager is not concerned by the champions' new £200 million (€252 million) academy as he is "very happy" with his own club's training centre.

United are in third place, five points behind City and a further three off Chelsea, going into a weekend in which Van Gaal's team host Liverpool tomorrow. His side are hoping for a sixth consecutive win and Van Gaal, asked if he was looking up the table, said: "No. I dream for Manchester City's place or Chelsea's place but now we have to live match to match and that is the most important thing. We have to beat Liverpool, which is more important than thinking about City or Chelsea."

Reduced the gap

Van Gaal was asked whether United were back in the title race, now they had reduced the gap to Chelsea by five points. “I said that when we were 13 points behind,” Van Gaal added.

“We now have a better possibility because I don’t think Chelsea shall lose so much.”

He was dismissive of the former United player Paul Scholes, who claimed City were attracting the better local youngsters.

Asked about these comments, he repeated the response to Gary Neville’s claim that United’s match with Liverpool would be akin to The Dog and Duck v The Red Lion, which came after victory over Southampton.

“Yes that’s also a legend, yeah? I think he has to pay attention to his words too,” Van Gaal said of Scholes.

“The building and accommodation [of the City academy] is not so important. The philosophy and staff are – and then of course you have to work with the talents.

“I don’t have time to compare talents and staff with each other. When I see what we have, I know I am very happy. Now I am more occupied with the first team and that’s more than difficult enough without the youth education.”

Asked if Neville’s pub comparison was disrespectful to United, he said: “I don’t know the context of how he said that so I can’t answer that, so I can only say what I have said – which is that as an ex-legend you must mind your words.”

Van Gaal agreed with Brendan Rodgers's comments before the clubs' meeting in August in a pre-season friendly that the Premier League would be a surprise to him because of its highly competitive nature.

“Yeah, I think he said at that moment the truth and I have experienced that way also,” Van Gaal said.

“The big difference between the leagues and where I have worked before is the high rhythm of the game.

“I think also every club has a player who can decide the match and that’s not so like in Germany or in Spain.”

The manager compared tomorrow’s atmosphere to el clasico.

"Barcelona v Real Madrid was 102,000. The stadium was adapted to 102,000 and they were sitting there and I won my first game [in charge of Barca] against them 3-0 and I was very pleased," he said.

Wise to stop

Van Gaal’s injury list has eased and he confirmed Radamel Falcao will be fit to start, if chosen.

“Now I have only four players injured – only [Luke] Shaw, [Chris] Smalling, [Angel]di Maria and [Daley] Blind. Falcao could make a return,” he said, before adding of Smalling: “It’s not so heavy an injury, he was very wise to stop immediately. I think it shall take two weeks.”

Regarding Di Maria, Van Gaal said: “I am not a doctor so I cannot answer but I know he is not ready for Liverpool.”

Robin van Persie has insisted he is not affected by having turned 31 in August.

“Personally, I don’t think so but if you look at the papers then it’s different,” he said. “It’s a strange feeling – when you hit 30 and you’re having a bad spell everyone say it’s because you’re 30 or 31 and things might be over for you.

“I don’t think it’s an age thing. I live a quiet life for my football and I’m almost convinced now that I will play for many years to come at the highest level; at least that’s what I want and what I’m aiming for. The age thing is not an issue for me at all.” Guardian Service