Rodgers rules himself out of Man United job and defends LVG

Brendan Rodgers: Speaks up for old foe Louis van Gaal

Brendan Rodgers: Speaks up for old foe Louis van Gaal

Former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has ruled himself out of the running to become Manchester United manager – and has leapt to the defence of Louis van Gaal.

Rodgers was sacked by Liverpool in October after three trophyless seasons at Anfield, despite spending the best part of £300million on players.

Rodgers remains out of work, saying he’ll return for the right opportunity and with pressure mounting on Van Gaal, the Northern Irishman was asked by talkSPORT if he’d consider the possibility of succeeding the Dutchman.

“When you manage Liverpool you know the Manchester United job is gone,” Rodgers said.

The pressure on Van Gaal has grown following Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Southampton, with the club on Tuesday denying reports he had offered to resign and insisting no decision would be made on his future until the summer.

Regarding the flak Van Gaal has is suffering, Rodgers added: “I see a lot of the criticism he gets but there’s no way that Louis van Gaal is sending the players out to have that few amount of shots on target.

“This is a guy who’s been around a long time and he built a team in ’95 at Ajax that everybody talked about for years, it was a real attacking blend of football.

“I think it’s a lot about the players as well. You look at United, do they have the players that can excite like what they had did before? That’s part to do with it as well.”