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Ander Herrera must up his game to win his fight to become a United regular.

Louis van Gaal says the £29m Basque signed in the summer from Athletic Bilbao is in a fierce battle with Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Angel di Maria for a coveted spot in the Reds midfield.

The 25-year-old has not started a Premier League match for the Reds since December 2 against Stoke City and has been in Van Gaal’s XI in the league on only six occasions.

Since the Stoke game Herrera has only begun the FA Cup third round tie at Yeovil - when he scored - and he’s had seven appearances coming on a substitute.

Herrera almost became a David Moyes buy in the summer of 2013 before the deal collapsed and, with the groundwork already done, it was revived 10 months later and new boss Van Gaal gave the green light for the deal to carry on.





However, Van Gaal says his summer buy is simply in a tussle with United’s stop stars and has to get better to win the challenge.

“I have to compare him with people like Rooney and Mata, for example, so that’s difficult, they are all at a high level - he has to improve,” said the Reds boss.

“But he’s a great guy, he’s a very great professional also, so that’s not the problem - his problem is he has to compete with high level players and Rooney is also the captain so he has a privilege.

“So then the other places are the place of the position in this system that we are playing now with a number 10 and that’s Mata and that’s Di Maria. That’s difficult to compete against but he did already know that at the moment that he signed for Manchester United.

“When you sign for a top club like he did he knows that he is had to fight but he is fighting.

He is coming back, there were a lot of weeks he was down but now he is coming back.”

Click below for a gallery of United's win over Cambridge: