The FA Cup Offers Louis van Gaal a Shot at Manchester United Redemption

In spite of his team's recent misfortunes, Louis van Gaal found time to poke fun at his treatment in the media as he addressed the press ahead of Manchester United's FA Cup fourth-round clash with Derby County.

He said, per BBC Sport: 

"

When you lose it is more worse and I predicted already, before the game against Southampton, that I cannot lose any more because I am then condemned for the fourth time that I have been sacked. Maybe then you have written the truth, because sometimes it happens.

"

"Condemned for the fourth time" was a reference to his earlier assertion, per Reuters' Alan Baldwin, that, "It is the third time already that I have been sacked," a comment on media stories alleging his impending departure from the club in recent weeks.

And yet, for all the talk, he is still in his post. Given how poor things have been of late at the Old Trafford club, that has come as a slight surprise.

It would have been easy to imagine him leaving either voluntarily or otherwise after the defeats to Norwich, Stoke City or Southampton, and yet the club appear determined to allow him to turn things around.

And the FA Cup gives him a genuine opportunity to do so.

With the league title a seemingly overwhelming long shot and the gruelling Europa League packed with fierce competition, just five wins stand between Van Gaal and United's first FA Cup since 2004. Of course, the same is true for every other team still in the tournament, but the impact on Van Gaal's United career would be highly significant.

Firstly, if he can win it, that will surely increase his popularity with a fanbase that is sick of him and his style of play. Additionally, it would be an important milestone for the club as a whole—the first meaningful silverware won since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

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Of course, the problem with this thesis is that it currently seems a challenge for United to get past Derby, let alone look further ahead.

However, if he can somehow engineer an improvement at United—something he was able to do in March and April of last year—the FA Cup could be a catalyst for some momentum.

And that is something which is badly needed, especially as the club has acted in a way that suggests it does not intend to sack him midseason. Players and fans alike are thus stuck with Van Gaal. Dreaming up best-case scenarios for how the rest of the season could go is a welcome break from the frustration of the club's refusal to make s a change.

It is not only FA Cup glory that could lead to a positive change. Last season, the cup defeat to Arsenal did, in fact, act as something of a catalyst. Angel Di Maria was sent off in that game, and without him Van Gaal amended his lineup and struck upon a winning formula.

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It was in the very next game that United played some of the best football they ever have under the Dutchman as they blew Tottenham Hostpur away in a 3-0 win. As well as the absence of Di Maria and the subsequent tactical rethink, there was impact of the blow felt by the loss to Arsenal, and the team seemed determined to right that wrong.

Of course, a limp defeat to Derby is unlikely to have the same galvanising effect, especially since it would stand as another limp defeat among many. But glory or glorious failure further down the line in this competition could inspire something more out of this otherwise insipid side.

It may feel like clutching at straws, but frankly, given how unlikely the prospect of Van Gaal turning things around at United feels, clutching at straws seems the only real option.