Promotion to the Premier League will undoubtedly be the biggest prize

Promotion to the Premier League will undoubtedly be the biggest prize on the minds of Derby County supporters, but they will just hope to get past Manchester United by creating a major upset in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Hosting United gives the Championship outfit a great opportunity to take advantage of the recent shortcomings shown by Louis Van Gaal’s team. United recently suffered a 1-0 loss against Southampton. This was the second consecutive season in which Southampton have been able to get a victory at Old Trafford. More importantly, United were extremely poor in an attacking sense and this has always been not the case.

Van Gaal is under tremendous pressure not just to improve results but to also play attractive football. Derby can take advantage of the problems at United to sneak into the fifth round. Derby were looking certainties to achieve promotion a few months ago, but they have dropped far behind the top of the table in recent weeks. The team has failed to achieve even a single league victory in the last five games. Prior to this run, they had been beaten only once in the last 10 games. Due to the dip in form, Derby at 11/4 to win against United.

Even though United are on a bad run of form, their undoubted quality sees them backed at 21/20 by several popular bookmakers. Several recent reports suggest that Van Gaal may be gone even before the start of the game against Derby since the club are thought to be extremely concerned about the recent run. The Dutchman’s contract runs out in the summer of 2017, but the club have already been linked with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. They are candidates who can easily replace Van Gaal almost immediately.