Asked whether he should be judged in his second season as United manager rather than his first – as Jose Mourinho demanded at Chelsea – Van Gaal said: “That is always the case. What I have experienced is that I was champion in Barcelona and in Germany, so it is possible but it is very difficult. When I got to Bayern Munich the [squad] selection was not stable. What we did was a miracle. Now here the selection is not in balance. There are five No 9s and six No 10s and so on. And we don’t have defenders.”