Louis Van Gaal Backs Manchester United To Stop Leicester's Jamie Vardy

Louis van Gaal believes there are similarities between Jamie Vardy and Ruud van Nistelrooy – but has backed Manchester United to stop the Leicester City forward from breaking the Dutchman’s Premier League goalscoring record.

Vardy will break Van Nistelrooy’s 12-year Premier League record if he scores in his 11th consecutive match when Leicester host United on Saturday Night Football.

Van Nistelrooy is the 11th highest scorer in United’s 137-year history, netting 150 goals in 219 matches for the club.

The former Netherlands international won league titles in England, Spain and Holland, while Vardy’s biggest achievement to date is helping Leicester win the Sky Bet Championship in 2014.

“More or less, Van Nistelrooy is like Vardy,” the United manager said.

“He is highly concentrated to make goals and is always running in behind, so you can compare them.”

Van Gaal knows how hard it is to maintain such a prolific scoring run, with Dennis Bergkamp the only player to have scored in 10 consecutive matches under him at Ajax more than 20 years ago.

He also knows first-hand how deadly Vardy can be in front of goal.

The 28-year-old scored one and had a hand in the other four goals in Leicester’s 5-3 win over United last season.

Van Gaal regards Vardy as a “nasty” threat, but one he feels his new and improved defence can cope with.

“He was last season a very nasty player for us,” Van Gaal added.

“He scored, won a penalty, and now he is scoring 10 games in a row, then you are a great player.

“I only know Dennis Bergkamp as a player who did the same with Ajax. It’s not so easy to do that.

“He is a player who is difficult to defend. It shall be difficult I think, but we can do that because we have a lot of clean sheets already.”

However, Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has warned United the England international is ready to make history and continue his lethal run in front of goal.

He said: “He is ready to break it. If Jamie breaks the record he will break the record. It’s not important how strong the defensive line is.

“Sometimes when you are in a hurry everything comes very easily. When you are on the right road everything comes to you.”

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