QPR coach Glenn Hoddle believes Manchester United were fortunate to finish in the top four this season.
Hoddle explained in his Mail on Sunday column: "There is a growing assumption that United will now make the top four, which probably was the key target for the club after dipping to seventh place last season, an unprecedented low in the modern era.
"My feeling is that it will still be very much nip and tuck for them at the end of this campaign; that they may well make the cut but they will just squeeze over the line rather than make it comfortably.
"In defence of Van Gaal, you have to allow for the extraordinary injury list with which he has had to cope. At different times he has lost Jonny Evans, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Luke Shaw for significant periods. Even if he had his first-choice back four, we all would have pointed to the defence as a potential weakness. Being denied his best players and with constant chopping and changing, it is hardly surprising they have struggled in that area."
