Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has defended Louis van Gaal's decision to oppose Sam Allardyce's criticism of Manchester United after branding the response from the Dutchman as "hilarious".

Van Gaal disagreed with Allardyce's "long-ball United" assessment of his side during a press conference earlier this week, and produced a number of stat sheets to outline why the West Ham United boss was wrong.

Carragher claimed that Van Gaal's media dealings are always entertaining and said that the Dutchman was merely standing up for what he believed in.

The ex-Reds centre-back told the Daily Mail: "As soon as Van Gaal started handing out sheets at his conference before the game with Burnley you could hear people say 'he's lost it', because it's not something you see a manager do every day. But I applauded him for standing up for his beliefs.

"It was also hilarious when he was passing around the sheets with his tactics on and came out with the line: 'Give this to Big Sam!'. How many of these press conferences do we see that are filled with endless cliches and quotes you have heard 100 times before?

"Full marks to Van Gaal for standing up for himself and having a go back at one of his rivals. He didn't overstep the mark, he just argued for what he believed in."

United are currently third in the Premier League.