When Manchester United claimed a point at Stoke on New Year’s Day last season they were indebted to Radamel Falcao, of all people, for the goal that cancelled out Ryan Shawcross’s early strike. That unlikely saviour will be unavailable on Saturday afternoon, so someone else from within United’s shot-shy ranks is going to have to step forward and attempt to justify the manager’s claim that the top of the table is still within reach. To most United supporters, especially those present when the four most recent home games yielded a miserable total of seven shots on target, it does not appear that way, and neither is it at all obvious why Louis van Gaal expects to feel warmth and support reflected in the media.

While one can readily understand Van Gaal’s annoyance at coverage that practically invited Manchester United to show him the door and roll out a welcome mat for the newly available José Mourinho, he surely cannot expect positive reviews for a run of results that has seen the side exit the Champions League, drop out of the top four and lose their unbeaten home record to promoted Norwich, a side in the bottom three when they visited Old Trafford last Saturday. All that can be said in Van Gaal’s favour is that he has still only lost four league games, one fewer than Manchester City and five fewer than Mourinho at Chelsea, and that one or two away performances this season have been quite encouraging.

Against that it is never a good sign when a manager walks out of a press conference mid-season. Sir Alex Ferguson used to do it to remind everyone who was in charge, but he was operating from a position of absolute strength. The trouble with the nuclear option is that press conferences are regular occurrences. Two or three a week, right through the season. Although to an extent Van Gaal could be admired for socking it to his critics on Wednesday, sticking to his principles and complaining of being unfairly maligned, taking such a stance from a position of weakness is high-risk. Indeed, more than a few managers who have vented their frustration in similar circumstances have done so in the knowledge or the expectation that they would no longer be around to deal with the fallout.

Should United manage to beat Stoke and follow it up with a convincing performance at home to Chelsea on Monday Van Gaal will be fully entitled to greet his next audience with a beaming smile, an expression of I-told-you-so-all-along and perhaps even a mince pie and a glass of wine. If the dire run continues, however, Van Gaal will have little alternative but to front up and accept he might have been fairly maligned after all. The Dutchman appeared to be doing something along those lines after the Norwich defeat, openly admitting that he used to be a successful manager (with an emphasis on the past tense) and confessing he was worried about losing his job because belief in his ability was in danger of draining away.

It still is, though what seems to have happened to make the manager up the ante is some degree of reassurance from within the club following Mourinho’s perceived interest in the job. United did not want Mourinho three years ago, and as recently as the start of this month the club were saying they were perfectly happy with Van Gaal as manager and quite likely to offer him a contract extension if he wanted one. Yet in the space of a couple of weeks United’s results took a turn for the worse and Mourinho became available, not exactly distancing himself from the possibility of turning up in Manchester to put everything right and reintroduce the club to European success. Timing, as much as anything, has created the sense of a crisis at Old Trafford.

It is true there is a limited appetite for the sort of boring football Van Gaal’s players have been producing of late, but Mourinho is also more pragmatist than entertainer and at least United are 11 points and 10 places above Chelsea. At the moment Van Gaal is proving solid, if unspectacular. He does not deserve a contract extension, but neither does he deserve to be sacked, even if a couple of attractive alternatives are now available.

This is a crisis that could be solved with a couple of good results, though the same could be said of most football crises. United and their manager just need to show they can raise their game, and they need to do it quickly, because there is no doubt Stoke can raise theirs.